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Emotional Avatars: The Interplay between Affect and Ownership of a Virtual Body

Human bodies influence the owners' affect through posture, facial expressions, and movement. It remains unclear whether similar links between virtual bodies and affect exist. Such links could present design opportunities for virtual environments and advance our understanding of fundamental concepts of embodied VR. An initial outside-the-lab between-subjects study using commodity equipment presented 207 participants with seven avatar manipulations, related to posture, facial expression, and speed. We conducted a lab-based between-subjects study using high-end VR equipment with 41 subjects to clarify affect's impact on body ownership. The results show that some avatar manipulations can subtly influence affect. Study I found that facial manipulations emerged as most effective in this regard, particularly for positive affect. Also, body ownership showed a moderating influence on affect: in Study I body ownership varied with valence but not with arousal, and Study II showed body ownership to vary with positive but not with negative affect.