The Looking-Glass Avatar: Representing Chronic Pain through Social Virtual Reality Avatar Movement

With recent movements toward disability as a social identity, we explore whether pain associated with chronic pain conditions (e.g., arthritis, Crohn’s disease, lupus) is also linked to identity and representation preferences. Prior work showed social VR users with invisible disabilities noted preliminary interest in using their avatar’s body language to represent their disability-related identities. We examined movement-based social virtual reality (VR) avatar representation preferences by conducting semi-structured interviews with five participants with such chronic pain conditions. Participants incorporated social norms, cultural considerations, and internalized self-stigma into their decision-making about pain disclosure and representation in different contexts. Aligning with previous work on self-presence and embodiment, in order to avoid discomfort, most participants wanted to avoid experiences where their avatar moved in ways that they did not, or could not, move in the physical world (i.e., jumping, bending over from the spine). Two participants also wanted to be able to represent their personal use of clothing and fashion as accommodation in the physical world. We believe this study will further our understanding of how disability-related identities should be represented in social VR spaces.