Effect of Avatar Clothing and User Personality on Group Dynamics in Virtual Reality
Yuan He, Lauren E. Buck, Brendan D. Rooney, Rachel McDonnell · 2023
Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a promising technology for remote teamwork; it allows individuals to collaborate in real-time via virtual avatars that convey body language and other nonverbal cues not available via traditional communication mechanisms. However, there is not much known about how the characteristics of these avatars affect the social interactions taking place in these environments. To bridge this gap, we investigate how avatar clothing influences group dynamics during team collaboration in VR. Particularly, we observe the difference between team dynamics when groups are dressed formally and casually. We asked groups of participants to report on their personality, complete two decision-making tasks while wearing different clothing, and report on their perceptions of work group inclusion and entitativity afterwards. We found that clothing had no influence on inclusion and entitativity, but personality did.