Me, Myself, and Not-I: Self-Discrepancy Type Predicts Avatar Creation Style

Mitchell G H Loewen; Christopher T Burris; Lennart E Nacke

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01902

Me, Myself, and Not-I: Self-Discrepancy Type Predicts Avatar Creation Style

Front Psychol. 2021 Jan 15:11:1902. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01902. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Mitchell G H Loewen^{1

2}, Christopher T Burris³, Lennart E Nacke^{2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
² HCI Games Group, The Games Institute, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
³ Department of Psychology, St. Jerome's University, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁴ Department of Communication Arts & Stratford School of Interaction Design and Business, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.

Abstract

In video games, identification with avatars-virtual entities or characters driven by human behavior-has been shown to serve many interpersonal and intraindividual functions (like social connection, self-expression, or identity exploration) but our understanding of the psychological variables that influence players' avatar choices remains incomplete. The study presented in this paper tested whether players' preferred style of avatar creation is linked to the magnitude of self-perceived discrepancies between who they are, who they aspire to be, and who they think they should be. One-hundred-and-twenty-five undergraduate gamers indicated their preferred avatar creation style and completed a values measure from three different perspectives: their actual, ideal, and ought selves. The average actual/ideal values discrepancy was greater among those who preferred idealized avatars vs. those who preferred realistic avatars. The average actual/ought values discrepancy was greater among those who preferred completely different avatars (i.e., fantasy/role-players) vs. those who preferred realistic avatars. These results, therefore, offer additional evidence that self-discrepancy theory is a useful framework for understanding avatar preferences.

Keywords: avatars; self-discrepancy theory; self-perception; values; video games.