The Role of Realism and Anthropomorphism in the Selection of Avatars

In a project designed to test how viewers evaluate and choose avatars to represent them online, viewers (N = 261) evaluated 92 potential avatars that varied along three dimensions – gender of the image, anthropomorphism (humanness), and realism (veridicality). Consistent with the predictions of information processing theory, results indicated that anthropomorphic qualities increased perceived realism and subsequent homophily judgments. As predicted by the uncanny valley hypothesis, viewers preferred avatars with levels of realism and anthropomorphism matched and were more critical of imperfections of avatars with higher levels of anthropomorphism. Image gender and anthropomorphism were found to produce a combination of positive and negative effects on competence ratings and selection of avatars. The theoretical and practical implications of these visible feature effects of avatars are discussed.