Proteus Effect through Muscular Avatars

The Proteus Effect is a phenomenon where a user's attitudes and behaviors change based on the appearance of their self-avatar, and it has been the subject of numerous studies. In this project, we initially discovered that when users employ avatars with a higher muscle mass, they perceive the weight of objects as lighter than in reality. Furthermore, we developed a system with avatars that exhibit gradual changes in appearance, synchronizing with participants' squat movements, aiming to explore the potential enhancement of the Proteus Effect through avatar appearance changes linked to users' proactive actions. However, at this stage, no significant impact was observed. Nonetheless, the development of methods for more natural avatar transformations and further verification in different Proteus Effect scenarios remain as future tasks.