Virtual Selves, Real Emotions: The Impact of Photorealistic Avatar Personalization on Emotion in Virtual Reality

Embodying photorealistic personalized avatars that closely resemble their users has recently become technologically achievable in virtual reality (VR). While previous work highlighted several benefits of personalization, its impact on emotions, a central VR element, remains underexplored. Given their high production cost, assessing the added value of photorealistic personalized avatars is essential before their adoption as a design feature. To address this, we designed and validated (n=302) four virtual environments (VEs) that induce emotions in different quadrants of Russell’s Circumplex Model. Using these VEs, we systematically investigated the impact of avatar type (no avatar, generic avatar, personalized avatar) on perceived emotions and physiological responses (n=51). Generic avatars enhanced valence, arousal, embodiment, presence and selected physiological measures, while personalized avatars further amplified these effects and additionally increased heart rate variability, a marker of self-regulation. Our study demonstrates that photorealistic personalized avatars markedly enhance VR’s capacity to foster emotional engagement.