Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), wherein people can virtually interact with each other via avatars, are becoming increasingly prominent. However, CVEs differ in type of avatar representation and level of behavioral realism afforded to users. The present investigation compared the effect of behavioral realism on users' nonverbal behavior, self-presence, social presence, and interpersonal attraction during a dyadic interaction. Fifty-one dyads (aged 18 to 26) embodied either a full-bodied avatar with mapped hands and inferred arm movements, an avatar consisting of only a floating head and mapped hands, or a static full-bodied avatar. Planned contrasts compared the effect of behavioral realism against no behavioral realism, and compared the effect of low versus high behavioral realism. Results show that participants who embodied the avatar with only a floating head and hands experienced greater social presence, self-presence, and interpersonal attraction than participants who embodied a full-bodied avatar with mapped hands. In contrast, there were no significant differences on these measures between participants in the two mapped-hands conditions and those who embodied a static avatar. Participants in the static-avatar condition rotated their own physical head and hands significantly less than participants in the other two conditions during the dyadic interaction. Additionally, side-to-side head movements were negatively correlated with interpersonal attraction regardless of condition. We discuss implications of the finding that behavioral realism influences nonverbal behavior and communication outcomes.

中文翻译：

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行为现实主义对协作虚拟环境中的社会互动的影响

协作虚拟环境 (CVE) 正变得越来越突出，其中人们可以通过虚拟化身进行虚拟交互。但是，CVE 的不同之处在于提供给用户的头像表示类型和行为真实感水平。本调查比较了行为现实主义对用户在二元交互期间的非语言行为、自我存在、社会存在和人际吸引力的影响。51 个二元组（18 至 26 岁）要么体现为具有映射的手和推断的手臂运动的丰满化身、仅由浮动头部和映射手组成的化身，要么体现为静态的丰满化身。计划对比比较了行为现实主义与没有行为现实主义的影响，并比较了低行为现实主义与高行为现实主义的影响。结果表明，仅以浮动的头部和手来体现化身的参与者比用映射的手体现出完整化身的参与者体验到更大的社会存在感、自我存在感和人际吸引力。相比之下，在两个映射手条件下的参与者和体现静态化身的参与者之间在这些措施上没有显着差异。在二元交互期间，静态化身条件下的参与者旋转自己的身体头部和手的次数明显少于其他两种条件下的参与者。此外，无论情况如何，左右头部运动都与人际吸引力呈负相关。我们讨论了行为现实主义影响非语言行为和沟通结果的发现的含义。