Towards Rigorous Role Design: A Survey Study on the Role Perceptions of Digital Twins in Preventive Health Contexts

As Human Digital Twins (HDTs) evolve into lifelong health companions, role design has appeared as a strategy to structure multifaceted interactions. However, empirical evidence of its impact on user perception is scarce. Through an online survey (N=263), we explored perceptions of 12 HDT roles within 3 groups: Self, Prediction Maker, and Data Explorer. Participants evaluated each role with preventive health scenarios across 5 perceptual dimensions and completed 3 intra-group rankings. Our initial results suggest a notable tension between the central "twinning" metaphor and the significantly lower scores of the Self group across four dimensions. Notably, Self-related roles did not elicit higher perceived emotional support than others, and high perceptual scores did not consistently translate into high rankings. These patterns suggest that emotional support may be considered as a tradeoff dimension rather than a primary expectation, inviting discussions on rigorous role selection that goes beyond data mimicry in health technology design.