Insights from the Uncanny Valley: Gender(Sex) Differences in Avatar Realism and Uncanniness Perceptions

Abstract

Two core factors influence the perception of avatars. On one side are the developers who are concerned with building avatars and in some cases pushing the boundaries of the realism. These developers are constrained by the resources available to them that allow them to produce the optimal avatar with the equipment, time, and skills available to them. On the other side are users who engage with avatars who are directly affected by the choices the developers have made. Inside the interaction between these sides is the avatar itself, whose appearance, level of realism and fundamental characteristics like a perceived gender(sex) can influence the user’s perception of that avatar. Despite the large amount of research dedicated to understanding the perception of avatars, many gaps in our understanding remain. In this work, we aim to contribute to further understanding one of these gaps by investigating the potential role of gender(sex) in the perception of avatar realism and uncanniness. We add to this discussion by presenting the results of an experiment where we evaluated realism and uncanniness perceptions by presenting a set of avatars to participants (n = 2065). These avatars are representative of those used in simulation and training contexts, from publicly available sources, and have varying levels of realism. Participants were asked to rank these avatars in terms of their realism and uncanniness perceptions to determine whether the gender(sex) of the participant influences in these perceptions. Our findings show that the gender(sex) of a participant does affect the perception of an avatar’s realism and uncanniness levels.