Physiological and Perceptual Effects of Avatars' Muscularity while Rowing in Virtual Reality

Virtual reality enables embodying different avatars. Coined the Proteus effect, previous work found that the visual characteristics of an avatar can cause behavioral, attitudinal, and perceptual effects. Recent work suggests that avatars’ muscularity can even have physiological effects while cycling in virtual reality. As the effects have not been replicated it is, however, unclear how robust they are and if effects are limited to specific activities, such as cycling. Therefore, we conducted a study to understand if avatars’ muscularity also causes physiological and perceptual effects for other tasks and if the effects can be replicated. 16 participants embodied a muscular and a non-muscular avatar while rowing on an indoor rower. We found that over time participants’ heart rates increased significantly slower when embodying a muscular avatar compared to a non-muscular avatar. While not significant, descriptive statistics suggest the same trend for perceived exertion. Overall, the results confirm previous findings and support the conclusion that avatars can cause physiological effects for a range of physical activities.