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，用户所扮演的预定义角色仅提供极少的自定义选项，往往更注重叙事而非用户选择。本研究探讨了匹配用户的身体特征（特别是种族和性别）与虚拟自我化身是否会影响其在VR中的具身感。我们针对多样化用户群体开展了一项2×2受试者内实验（n=32），探究虚拟化身与用户的种族和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，这种增强体现在外观、反应和所有权等多个方面。我们还发现，匹配性别能显著增强所有权感，表明这一方面受种族和性别匹配的共同影响。有趣的是，匹配种族主要影响自我定位，而匹配性别则主要影响身体所有权感。