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，用户需操控预设角色，这些角色通常提供极少的自定义选项，且往往更侧重于叙事而非用户选择。本研究探讨将用户的物理特征（特别是种族与性别）与其虚拟自我化身相匹配，是否会影响其在VR中的具身感。我们通过一项2×2的被试内实验（n=32），招募了多样化的用户群体，以探究用户自我化身与其种族和性别匹配与否对其具身感的影响。我们的研究结果表明，无论性别如何，用户与其自我化身的种族匹配均能显著增强具身感，这种增强体现在外观、响应和所有权等多个维度。我们还发现，性别匹配能显著增强所有权感，表明该维度同时受到种族和性别匹配的影响。有趣的是，我们发现种族匹配特别影响自我定位，而性别匹配则特别影响身体所有权感。