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Updated: Jun 7, 2026

Creating Virtual-hand and Virtual-face Illusions to Investigate Self-representation
Published on: March 1, 2017
[Impact of interactivity on identification with characters in fiction]
María T Soto-Sanfiel1, Laura Aymerich-Franch, Francesc Xavier Ribes Guàrdia
1Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, Facultad de Ciencias de la Comunicación, Bellaterra, Spain. mariateresa.soto@uab.es
Abstract:
The effect of interactivity on identification with characters in audiovisual fiction was observed. 310 participants were asked to watch a film in one of these two conditions: 1) interactive (they selected the plot), and 2) non-interactive (they consumed the fiction in a conventional way). After watching the movie, they completed a questionnaire with the EDI scale of identification and empathy with characters, created by Igartua and Paez. The capacity to intervene in the configuration of the plot (interactivity) affected identification with characters. The results provide data about the psychology of media and interactivity in communication and allow us to understand the processes of empathy and identification with characters.
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