Exploring the user-avatar relationship in videogames: A systematic review of the Proteus effect

Figures & data

Figure 1. PRISMA flow diagram.

Table 1. Main characteristics of reviewed studies (N=17)

Study	Sample size, description and population cohort, and country of study	Proteus effect investigated	Game environment	Measures/instruments	Main results
Ash, 2016	84 students from United States University. 51 females and 36 males, age range 18 to 25 years (M = 20.93, SD = 0.49). Convenience sampling	Avatar race and in-game/postgame aggression	Xbox 360 Fight Night 4 (boxing sports simulation videogame)	Aggression: cognition, assessed using word completion task (Anderson et al., 2003); affect, assessed using state-hostility scale (Anderson et al., 1995); and behavior, assessed through in-game behavior.	No significant effect found for avatar race predicting in-game behavior, nor any significant effect found for post-game aggression cognition or affect. However, post-hoc analysis showed a stronger PE for participants who experienced higher levels of avatar embodiment.
Bian et al., 2015	92 students (46 high-shy, 46 low-shy). (Participant description not detailed) (Country not detailed)	Avatar attractiveness/participant shyness and social behavior (social interaction participation and maintenance)	The Sims 3 (life simulation videogame). PC	Self-report questions evaluating social performance	Significant effect of high avatar attractiveness and greater social participation, marginally significant effect of lower participant shyness and greater social participation. Significant effect of shyness and maintaining-interaction, but no significant effect for avatar attractiveness and maintaining-interaction.
Li & Lwin, 2016	322 Singapore high school students. 160 females and 162 males. Mean age 12.37 years (SD = 2.21). Convenience sampling	Influence of self-avatar in exercise videogame on future exercise intention	Xbox Kinect Sports and Just Dance 3 (exercise videogames)	Self-report questions assessing: self-presence; identification; enjoyment; exergame intention; exercise intention.	Self-presence significantly associated with identification. Identification significantly associated with enjoyment. Enjoyment significantly associated with exergame intention. Exergame intention significantly associated with exercise intention.
Peña & Kim, 2014	96 female United States university students. Age range 19 to 25 years (M = 21.07, SD = 1.24). Convenience sampling	Influence of avatar weight on in-game physical activity	Nintendo Wii Virtua Tennis 2009 (sports simulation videogame)	Physical activity measured with accelerometers	Normal-weight-avatar players were significantly more active during gameplay than obese-avatar players. Participant BMI had no significant effect on results.
Peña et al., 2016	96 male United States university students. Age range 18 to 32 years (M = 21.25, SD = 2.35). Convenience sampling	Influence of avatar weight on in-game physical activity	Nintendo Wii Virtua Tennis 2009 (sports simulation videogame)	Physical activity measured with accelerometers	Normal-weight-avatar players were significantly more active during gameplay than obese-avatar players. Participant BMI had no effect on results.
Peña et al., 2018	172 United States university students. 149 females and 23 males. Age range 18 to 29 years (M = 20.15 years, SD = 2.05) Convenience sampling	Influence of avatar job on post-game attitudes toward immigrants	Papers, Please (dystopian immigration officer simulator) and Westport Independent (newspaper editor simulation videogame). PC	Self-report questionnaire assessing: intention; attitudes; subjective norms; and self-efficacy	Significant decrease in intention, subjective norms and self-efficacy relating to helping immigrants after playing Papers, Please compared to Westport independent
Peña & Hernandez Pérez, 2020	180 south-eastern Spanish university students. 79 female, 91 male and 10 identified as neither male nor female. Age range 18 to 35 years (M = 21.41, SD = 10.09). Convenience sampling	Influence of avatar job on post-game attitudes toward immigrants	Papers, Please (dystopian immigration officer simulator) and Westport Independent (newspaper editor simulation videogame). PC	Self-report questionnaire assessing: intention; attitudes; subjective norms; and self-efficacy	Significant decrease in intention and attitudes relating to helping immigrants after playing Papers, Please compared to Westport Independent
Ratan & Sah, 2015	64 female western university students. Age range 18 to 28 years (M = 19.83, SD = 2.07). Convenience sampling of females	Influence of avatar gender on post-game gender conforming behavior	Nintendo Wii Sports Resort Swordplay (sports simulation videogame)	Self-report avatar embodiment scale and 10 math questions from GRE practice material (Educational Testing Service, 1999)	Female participants who customized an avatar but experienced low avatar-embodiment performed significantly better at a math task than those using a female avatar.
Ratan & Dawson, 2016	76 female western university students. Age range 18 to 28 years (M = 19.83, SD = 2.07). Convenience sampling of females	Avatar self-relevance after avatar use	Nintendo Wii Sports Resort Swordplay (sports simulation videogame)	Survey measures included proto self-presence and core self-presence scales (Ratan, 2013). Additional HR, SCR and Corrugator EMG metrics recorded with 4-channel MP36 system and Biopac Student Lab software	Significant results indicating: avatar/user gender consistency increases post-use avatar-self relevance; high avatar-emotional connection increases post-use avatar self-relevance; and high avatar-body connection decreases post-use avatar self-relevance
Sah et al., 2017	133 female college students. Mean age 20.26 years (SD = 1.34). Convenience sampling of females specifically not restricting their diet. (country not detailed)	Avatar related self-concept influencing in-game and post-game health behavior	Yoobot versus YooNot (healthy eating intervention web based videogame)	Self-report survey measuring: health consciousness; in-game healthy food choice; and post-game healthy food choice	Significant result for ought-self avatar and healthier food choice both within and post-game. No significant results identified for ideal-self and actual-self avatars on healthy food choice within or post-game
Song et al., 2014	72 students from mid-western United States university. 34 females and 38 males. Recruitment based on online survey measuring BID (only included participants scoring in the upper and lower 30% of BID scores). (Ages not detailed)	Avatars and reducing social physique anxiety in-game	Nintendo Wii boxing videogame (sports simulation videogame)	Measures for: social physique anxiety (Yao & Flanagin, 2004); perceived exercise enjoyment and exergame experience questionnaire	Significantly reduced social physique anxiety for both high and low BID participants. Significantly higher exercise enjoyment for high BID participants.
Stavropoulos et al., 2020a	404 World of Warcraft players. 299 females and 83 males. Mean age 25.56 years (SD = 7.61). Online survey using posts on relevant forum sites and social media to recruit gamers.	Associations between avatar race, immersion and offline behavior	World of Warcraft (fantasy MMO). PC	Modified Proteus Effect Scale (Van Looy et al., 2012), and Immersion subscale from UAR Questionnaire (Blinka, 2008)	Significant positive association between immersion and offline PE behavior. Playing as Drenai character race significantly positively associated with higher immersion and offline PE behavior.
Stavropoulos et al., 2020b	1022 World of Warcraft players. 202 females and 820 males. Mean age 28.60 years (SD = 9.90). Online survey using posts on relevant forum sites and social media to recruit gamers.	PE profiles and the link to disordered gaming	World of Warcraft (fantasy MMO). PC	Modified Proteus Effect Scale (Van Looy et al., 2012) and Internet Gaming Disorder Scale–Short-Form (Pontes & Griffiths, 2015)	Three PE classes identified, including: non-influenced gamers (NIGs), perception-cognition influenced gamers (PCIGs), and emotion and behavior influenced gamers (EBIGs). Reported disordered gaming symptoms were lower for the NIGs and then progressively higher for PCIGs and EBIGs.
Sylvia et al., 2014	50 male students from northeast United States university. Age range 18 to 24 years ((M = 19.76, SD = 1.49). Convenience sampling of males	Influence of avatar body type on post-game body dissatisfaction and attitudes	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (open world fantasy RPG). Platform not described	The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965), Swansea Muscularity Attitudes Questionnaire (Edwards & Launder, 2000), and Body Esteem Scale (Franzoi & Herzog, 1986)	Significant result indicating participants controlling a high muscular-avatar reported lower body satisfaction post-game. No significant difference in post-game attitudes toward muscularity
Vandenbosch et al., 2017	115 adolescents from secondary school in Belgium. 48 females and 67 males. Age range 11 to 14 years (M = 12.63, SD = 0.85). Convenience sampling of adolescents	Influence of sexualized avatars on self-objectification	RuneScape (fantasy MMO). PC	Self-objectification questionnaire (Noll & Fredrickson, 1998; Vandenbosch & Eggermont, 2014)		Significant result indicating playing as a sexualized avatar increased self-objectification amongst both male and female adolescents
Yee et al., 2009	76,843 World of Warcraft characters. Data collected from in-game automated script performing census of character information across three servers during a seven day period. (No details of game players)	Avatar height and attractiveness on in-game and post-game behavior	World of Warcraft (fantasy MMO). PC	Height/attractiveness (as rated by sample of students) and player performance assessed by player level		Significant result indicating avatar height and attractiveness were positively associated with player performance
Yee et al., 2011	1084 World of Warcraft players. 282 females and 802 males. Age range 18 to 65 years (M = 27.03, SD = 8.21). Posts on relevant forum sites and social media to recruit gamers.	Influence of avatar gender and player gender on gender-conforming in-game behaviors	World of Warcraft (fantasy MMO). PC	Healing metric and PVP metric based on in-game character data		Significant effect of avatar gender on healing behavior. Significant effect of avatar gender on PVP behavior. No significant effects identified for player gender for either PVP or healing behaviors.

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