In many consumer virtual reality (VR) applications, users embody predefined characters that offer minimal customization options, frequently emphasizing storytelling over user choice. We explore whether matching a user's physical characteristics, specifically ethnicity and gender, with their virtual self-avatar affects their sense of embodiment in VR. We conducted a 2 x 2 within-subjects experiment (n=32) with a diverse user population to explore the impact of matching or not matching a user's self-avatar to their ethnicity and gender on their sense of embodiment. Our results indicate that matching the ethnicity of the user and their self-avatar significantly enhances sense of embodiment regardless of gender, extending across various aspects, including appearance, response, and ownership. We also found that matching gender significantly enhanced ownership, suggesting that this aspect is influenced by matching both ethnicity and gender. Interestingly, we found that matching ethnicity specifically affects self-location while matching gender specifically affects one's body ownership.

翻译：在许多消费级虚拟现实（VR）应用中，用户扮演着预设角色，这些角色仅提供极少的自定义选项，通常更侧重于叙事而非用户选择。本文探究了匹配用户自身特征——具体为种族和性别——与其虚拟化身是否会影响用户在VR中的具身感。我们以多样化用户群体为对象，开展了一项2×2被试内实验（n=32），旨在研究用户虚拟化身与自身种族及性别匹配或不匹配对具身感的影响。结果表明，无论性别如何，匹配用户与虚拟化身的种族能显著增强具身感，且这种效应扩展至外观、反应及所有权等多个方面。此外，我们发现匹配性别显著增强了所有权感，提示该方面受种族与性别匹配的共同影响。有趣的是，匹配种族主要影响自我位置感，而匹配性别则专门影响身体所有权感。