Virtual Hand Realism Affects Object Size Perception in Body-Based Scaling

URL

How does the representation of an embodied avatar influence the way in which one perceives the scale of a virtual environment? We examine how avatar realism affects perceived object sizes as the size of the virtual hand changes. In the experiment, we manipulate the level of realism (realistic, iconic, and abstract) and size (veridical and enlarged) of the virtual hand and measure the perceived size of a cube. Our findings indicate that the more realistic the avatar, the stronger is the sense of body ownership, which fosters scaling the size of objects using the size of the body as a fundamental metric.