Embodiment, gender, and skin in VR
Our latest paper is now out in International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction - Avatar Gender and Skin-Color Incongruence in Young Chinese Male Users: A Dimension-Specific Study of Embodiment in a VR Rhythm Boxing Exergame
What happens to the experience of embodiment when your avatar’s gender or skin colour does not match your own? If it does not look like you, can you still be feeling like you are your avatar?
In our new paper, we explored how these two forms of avatar–user incongruence shape the sense of embodiment in virtual reality. Specifically, we looked into two aspects of embodiment: body ownership (the feeling that the virtual body is your body) and agency (the feeling that you are controlling its actions).
The study was conducted with 96 young Chinese male participants in a VR rhythm-boxing exergame. We used a 2×2 experimental design in which the avatars’ gender and skin colour were either congruent or incongruent with those of the users. Participants entered the virtual environment through one of four avatar conditions and completed an active boxing task involving repeated, coordinated movements. This setting allowed us to examine embodiment not only as a question of visual identification, but also as an experience emerging through action and participation in the virtual environment.
The findings show that user'-avatar mismatch does not simply “reduce embodiment”. In fact, neither gender nor skin-colour incongruence had a significant effect on body ownership. Participants could still experience the virtual body as their own even when some of its visible identity cues differed from their physical appearance. When it comes to agency, our experiment suggested otherwise, with participants reporting a stronger sense of control when the avatar matched their own gender and skin colour. In other words, visual incongruence did not necessarily disrupt the feeling that “this body is mine,” but it did affect the feeling that “I am the one making this body move”.
This distinction may help explain why previous studies on avatar–user similarity have produced mixed results. When embodiment is measured as one general construct, different and potentially opposing experiential processes can become difficult to distinguish.
Our findings therefore point towards investigating a more dimension-specific understanding of virtual embodiment. Body ownership and agency may respond differently to the same avatar feature, depending on how the body is represented, what users are asked to do, and which perceptual or motor demands are relevant during the experience.
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Deng, D., Huang, Y., Liu, L., Wang, A., Li, M., Bujić, M., & Hamari, J. (2026). Avatar Gender and Skin-Color Incongruence in Young Chinese Male Users: A Dimension-Specific Study of Embodiment in a VR Rhythm Boxing Exergame. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 1-22.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2026.2699368
Authors: Dion Deng, Yingjie Huang, Lie Liu, Ailin Wang, Mingrui Li, Mila Bujić, Juho Hamari
Funding: The study was supported by Research Council of Finland (342144; ‘POSTEMOTION’)
