Five major traits were considered: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Big Five Personality Model). In the study, a group of participants created customized avatars and then, a different set of participants viewed and rated the avatars created by the first group.
It was found out that some traits are communicated better than others. For instance, it was easier to understand how outgoing or anxious a person is. Outgoing and sociable individuals seem to create avatars that communicate their personality accurately while those more anxious and higher in neuroticism tend to create avatars that don’t. In addition to this, more agreeable individuals were found to create avatars that elicit friendship intentions to others, that had the common features of open eyes and that avoided a neutral expression (so they would have a smile or a grin on their faces).
The study has shown that yes, avatars can give information about the creator’s personality and this can lead to interesting implications. For instance, virtual reality platforms could adjust their available features for their avatars to allow customers to better represent their personalities. For sure, this would engage customers more and allow them to have an even more positive experience.
With more brands creating experiences in the metaverse, the level of insights that data scientists can gather from the avatars and their behaviors presents a really interesting avenue for exploration. Although other studies show that many people can create avatars that are quite different from their IRL personalities, the majority of research indicates that real life personality is clearly evident in all avatars. The applications and insights are endless, especially when we can connect it with data from a real person’s shopping behavior.