The Psychology of Avatar and Self-Perception 

We all might have created avatar at least once either in snapchat, WhatsApp, gaming and any other digital media platforms and even we can create stickers with them. While creating avatars knowing or unknowingly, we specify features that we consider important in ourselves. Researchers say it is basically the way you perceive yourself. Studies show exciting findings about avatar and the perception of ourselves. 

Researchers say that avatars are assigned features that are part of the creators’ self-concept, it explains their identity and values they consider important. Thus, creating avatars involves bringing awareness about the self. 

Self 

According to self-discrepancy theory, self is classified into ideal self, actual self and ought self. 

• Ideal self is what person want to become. 
• Actual self is how the person is in real. 
• Ought self is what the society expect the person to be. 

Avatars 

Avatars are visual representation we can create as an customized animated version of ourselves. We can add the features which feels similar to ours or how we want ourselves to be. Avatar creators can be of two types: Desired avatar creators and Actual avatar creators. 

• Desired Avatar Creators: Desired avatar creators are those who create avatars based on how they want themselves to be. (i.e. ideal self) 
• Actual Avatar Creators: Actual avatar creators, make avatars based on how they are at present. (i.e. actual self) Self-Discrepancy.

If there’s any discrepancy between the three selves, it can result in unhealthy negative emotional states and in some case leads to depression. By creating a self-resembling avatar i.e. ideal self, one can resolve their self-discrepancy.

Self- Perception 

According to APA, Self-perception is how an individual view themselves in terms of physical, emotional and social attributes that are comprised in the self. Distorted or negative self perception can result in negative health behaviors such as eating disorder. 

Body image 

Body image is the self-perception about their body. Body dissatisfaction tends to arise due to the social factors such as the so-called ideal body weight practised by celebrities and other influencers. Individuals tend to internalize the ideal body weight and thus in turn result in negative emotional states, and decrease motivational states. The discrepancy in body image can be caused due to the disparity that between the ideal self and actual self of the body image.

Read More: 8 Ways to Deal with Body Image Issues

Ideal body-Image and Avatar 

According to social learning theory given by Albert Bandura, we observe and learn from the social model. Exposure to thin models may create a sense of dissatisfaction with their body image. Whereas, creating avatars with their ideal self can help them to gain motivation to perform healthy behavior. 

Fox & Bailenson (2009) concluded from their study that individuals who see their avatars made out of desired version of themselves (ideal self), getting reward for exercising behavior in immersive virtual environment tend to follow it in real life. 

Researchers found that using avatars influenced the self-confidence and self-disclosure (Yee & Bailenson, 2007) and reduces the negative stereotyping (Yee & Bailenson, 2006). It is also concluded that making avatars with ideal self, promotes healthy behaviors like exercising (Fox & Bailenson, 2009). 

Regulatory focus theory 

The regulatory focus theory was given by Huggins (1997), which suggests that individuals have two types of regulatory goals. 

1. Promotion goals: Promotion goals are being pursued to gain a positive outcome.
2. Preventive goals: Preventive goals are pursued in order to avoid the negative outcome. 

A study found that an individual who made to visualize their ideal bodies tend to engage in promotion focused self-preservation. And an individual who made to witness the risk caused to their physical self, uses the prevention focused self-preservation. But the level of motivation varies in both the cases. From this we can infer that it is an effective method to be used in de-addiction centers to get rid of the negative health behaviors. 

Proteus effect 

It is a psychological phenomenon which states that individuals tend to exhibit behavior in a virtual environment according to their appearance as avatar. 

• A Study conducted by Yee & Bailenson (2007), participants were placed in an environment where they can see and control an avatar and made to do negotiation. One group (Group 1) was given tall, attractive avatars whereas the other group (Group 2) was given shorter, less attractive avatars. Those who were in group 1 acted with more confident and aggression and made higher demands. Individuals in group 2 acted in more passive and made lower offers. 
• In another study Sah et al., (2016), where 133 participants were split into three groups and asked to customize avatars based on their ideal self, actual self and ought self. And then instructed to play a game where they have to choose the food items for their avatars within the game and themselves to consume in real life. The study result found that those who customized avatars to reflect their ought self-showed positive correlation between health consciousness and healthier food choices both in-game and afterwards. 
• A Study by Yee & Bailenson, also suggests that when a participant is represented in the body of senior citizen in the virtual environment, they tend to show decline in stereotypes towards the elderly people. This shows that immersive virtual environment gives opportunity to understand the other person’s perspective. 
• In another study, participants were asked to customize avatars on their own without any pre instructions. The participants with high level of life satisfaction showed higher similarity with the avatars and participants with low level of life satisfaction created an idealized avatar, to compensate their own deficits. 

Conclusion 

Avatars are more than digital characters- they’re the powerful reflections of self-perception. The way people design avatars often mirrors their actual, ideal, or ought selves, and this self representation can significantly influence behavior, motivation, and emotional well-being. Research shows that avatars based on the ideal self can promote healthier behaviors and boost confidence, while discrepancies between self-concepts may lead to emotional distress. The Proteus effect further highlights how avatar appearance can directly shape real-world actions, making avatar customization a valuable psychological and therapeutic tool in digital environments.