Examining the Proteus Effect in the Context of Healthy Food Choices and Intentions to Eat Healthy: The Role of Avatar Body Size, Avatar Allocation Type, and Visual Perspective

Drawing upon the Proteus effect, avatars can positively and negatively affect health behaviors, depending on whether the avatar appearance is aligned with stereotypes about healthy or unhealthy behavior. Investigating avatar appearances is essential to understand potential negative health effects.

Three experiments in a non-immersive virtual supermarket examined whether controlling an overweight avatar negatively affected 1) intentions to eat healthy and 2) food choice healthiness in the virtual supermarket, thereby investigating avatar allocation type (Study 1) and visual perspective (Study 2) as moderators. 2 (Avatar body size: overweight vs. healthy weight) by 2 (Avatar allocation type: self-assigned vs. experimenter-assigned [Study 1]; Visual perspective: first-person vs. third-person [Studies 2 and 3]) between-subjects designs were employed.