Undergraduate Research

3D Avatars and Body Image Perception of Young Adults: An Exploratory Study

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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify how individuals with positive or negative body image perceptions interact with their own digital avatars and consider their usage in the virtual world. The proposed research questions are: RQ1:Will one's body image perception change after interacting with their own 3Davatars? RQ2: How will young women's body image perception play a role in how they play/interact with their digital avatars? The results suggest that the positive BI group was more confident to admit the features of their body they would like to modify without showing averse behavior. However, half of the negative group displayed averse behavior in talking about their avatar and the other half chose to keep the avatar as it was. To our surprise, we found a mean score increase on participants' body satisfaction scores after they interacted with their avatars.Specifically, the negative BI group showed a notable increase in their BIsatisfaction perception than the positive BI group.

Keywords: metaverse, virtual reality, augmented reality, digital avatar, 3D body scanning, body image perception, degital avatar, 3D body scannign, body image

How to Cite:

Butcher, C., Jai, T. (. & Balasubramanian, M., (2024) “3D Avatars and Body Image Perception of Young Adults: An Exploratory Study”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 80(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.17326