When Avatars Get under the Skin: Exploring Relationships between Neuroticism, Avatar Perceptual Features and Physiological Responses across Emotional Virtual Environments

Embodied photorealistic avatars are increasingly used in emotionally rich and diverse virtual reality (VR) applications due to their perceptual benefits. However, it is unclear how specific avatar perceptual features (APFs) and individual differences may relate to user physiology across different emotional virtual environments (VEs). In a within-participants study, we investigated the relationship between user neuroticism, APFs and physiological metrics, measured across four emotion VEs systematically manipulating emotional valence and arousal (N = 51). Users embodied photorealistic personalised avatars (i.e., mirroring their appearance) and generic gender-matched avatars. We demonstrate that individual APFs have distinct relationships with user physiology, which are generally multiplied and reversed by higher user neuroticism. Moreover, APFs such as familiarity, appeal, appearance similarity and perceived realism can support emotional regulation by increasing heart rate variability (HRV) for higher neuroticism individuals. Overall, our findings highlight how avatar design can be strategically leveraged to optimise affective outcomes across diverse VR contexts.