Determinants and persuasive health effects of virtual body ownership when embodying an overweight avatar

Virtual experiences, and more specifically, full body illusions, can potentially be used to stimulate consumers to adopt a healthier lifestyle. To gain understanding of the potential role of virtual body ownership (VBO: the experience of a virtual body as one’s own) in health promotion, this study has two aims: 1) examining two possible determinants of VBO (i.e., visuotactile stimulation (VTS) and avatar body size; and 2) examining the effects of avatar body size on healthy eating intentions and (un)healthy eating behavior, which could, according to theory, run in both directions, and the moderating role that VTS (as a proxy for VBO) plays in this relationship.A 2 (avatar body size: healthy weight vs. overweight) by 2 (VTS: incongruent vs. congruent) between-subjects design was employed (N=110), among healthy weight participants. Confirming expectations, it was found that those embodying an overweight avatar experienced less VBO than those embodying a healthy weight avatar, and that congruent VTS led to stronger VBO than incongruent VTS. Furthermore, a significant interaction effect of avatar body size and VTS was found on healthy eating intentions, although none of the simple effects were significant. No effects were found on (un)healthy eating behavior. Keywords: Virtual Reality, virtual body ownership, avatar body size, visuotactile stimulation, healthy eating