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Design and Development of Online Avatars
Vol.:(0123456789)
Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:14451 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93865-7
www.nature.com/scientificreports/
in the design and development of online avatars for a wide range of scenarios. Evidence from 3D online game environments, for example, suggests that people prefer idealized avatars in such environments63. Based on this research, we hypothesized that own concrete and ideal body representations would show a stronger relationship than own concrete and own abstract body representations. Furthermore, in line with research that has shown that body size/shape estimation is affected by bodily self-esteem26, personality traits61, and body (dis)satisfaction with certain body parts42,64, we hypothesized that body estimation in the current study would be influenced by these psychological differences.
Finally, we aimed to explore which body areas were predictive of the different body representations (own abstract, ideal, own concrete), by using a statistical test based on random field theory specifically adapted to reverse correlation CIs65. This technique, which identifies clusters of pixels that predict participants’ choices, has been successfully employed to identify intensity and unpleasantness of pain expressions66, and facial trustworthiness30, for example.
When it comes to body perception, researchers have used eye tracking as a method to explore the areas of the body that people look at (i.e. pay attention to) when estimating their body size. These studies have shown that people who are able to accurately determine their body size are more likely to look at informative body areas (such as the waist and upper thigh gap), while people who overestimate their body size (including women suffering from anorexia nervosa) tend to focus on less informative areas such as the face and upper parts of the torso67.
Additionally, a recent study indicated that key areas for accurate self-assessment are located on the edges of the torso and waist on either side of the body68. Importantly, it seems that an equal division of attention towards both sides of the body is necessary, given that a preference for the right side of the body is associated with overestimation of own body size. While we did not use eye tracking in the current study, we wanted to explore whether similar patterns could be observed using the statistical test mentioned earlier in the paragraph, applied to all three body representations.
As shown in previous research using explicit body size measures67,68, we hypothesized that diagnostic areas of our CIs would depend on participants’ under- and overestimation of own body measurements. Consequently, we also expected that the relationship between real and perceived hip width would be different for under- compared to over-estimators as a result of using different diagnostic areas to perform the estimation.
Results Correlations between real and perceived hip width. Correlations were calculated between perceived hip width in all conditions (own abstract, ideal, own concrete) and participants’ real hip width measurements. Perceived own abstract (r = 0.19, p = 0.155, BF10 = 0.451) and ideal (r = 0.11, p = 0.419, BF10 = 0.231) hip width did not correlate with real hip width. Perceived own concrete hip width, however, showed a significant negative cor- relation with real hip width (r = -0.27, p = 0.050, BF10 = 1.09; see Fig. 1), suggesting that the hip width of CIs in the own concrete body condition was larger for participants with smaller hip widths (and vice versa). Perceived hip widths off all three conditions did not correlate with each other (own abstract—ideal: r = 0.08, p = 0.551, BF10 = 0.200; own abstract—own concrete: r = 0.02, p = 0.895, BF10 = 0.170; ideal—own concrete: r = -0.05, p = 0.690, BF10 = 0.182). Note that the BF for the correlation between real and perceived hip width in the own abstract condition does not meet the threshold to support the absence of any effects (although it is very close to reaching this threshold; BF10 < 1/3), while the BF for the own concrete condition does not meet the threshold to reject the null hypothesis (BF10 > 3). These findings should therefore be interpreted with more caution.
In addition to the analyses across all participants, the correlation analyses were performed separately for under- versus over-estimators. Under-/over-estimators were defined as participants whose perceived hip width was smaller/larger than their real hip width. For each condition, we investigated whether the relationship between real and perceived hip width interacted with group (under- versus overestimation). For own abstract body, under-estimators showed a significantly positive correlation between real and perceived width (n = 20, r = 0.89, p < 0.001, BF10 > 100), while no relation was observed for over-estimators (n = 35, r = 0.21, p = 0.223, BF10 = 0.43; interaction with group, F(1,51) = 27.30, p < 0.001, BF10 > 100; see Fig. 2). No effects of under- versus overestima- tion were found for ideal and own concrete body.
Psychological traits. To investigate the influence of psychological traits on body representations, mixed linear effects models were run (see Supplementary Table S1 for model details). An H1 model with perceived hip width as dependent variable that included participants’ real hip width, condition (own abstract, ideal, own concrete), their interaction, and the interaction between condition and Big 5 Conscientiousness significantly improved model fit (AIC = 333.95, χ2 = 10.27, p = 0.016; AICH0 = 357.08). Big 5 Conscientiousness significantly predicted perceived hip width for own concrete (β = 0.31, SE = 0.13, t(53) = 2.44, p = 0.018) but not own abstract (β = − 0.03, SE = 0.10, t(53) = − 0.34, p = 0.738) and ideal (β = − 0.15, SE = 0.10, t(53) = − 1.49, p = 0.143) body con- ditions (see Fig. 3a), indicating that participants who reported to be more conscientious showed wider perceived hip width for the own concrete body.
We additionally ran linear models with perceived hip width as dependent variable, and real hip width, psy- chological traits, and their interaction as predictors for each condition separately (see Supplementary Table S2 for model details). A model that included BESAA Weight scores, as well as their interaction with real hip width, significantly improved model fit for the model in the own abstract condition (AIC = 62.78, χ2 = 8.03, p = 0.034; AICH0 = 58.30). A trending interaction was observed between BESAA Weight scores and real hip width when predicting perceived hip width for the own abstract body judgment (β = − 0.07, SE = 0.03, t(51) = − 1.95, p = 0.057; see Fig. 3b), suggesting that a negative relationship was found between real and perceived hip width for partici- pants with more positive attitudes towards their body weight when producing own abstract body CIs, while the reverse relationship was observed for participants with more negative body weight attitudes. For the ideal and own concrete condition, no psychological trait scores significantly improved model fit.
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Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:14451 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93865-7
www.nature.com/scientificreports/
No influence of the psychological traits was found on the differences between the body representations (own abstract—ideal, own abstract—own concrete ideal—own concrete).
Diagnostic areas. All participants showed clear clusters for all three conditions. Figure 4a–c represent the CIs of the own abstract, ideal, and own concrete body respectively, across all participants. The areas in red indi- cate the areas that were significantly correlated with each judgment (zcrit ≥|2.3|, p < 0.05). For the own abstract body, a large cluster in the upper body, skewed to the right, was observed (including the right hip and waist, torso, neck, and right arm), as well as small clusters around the left leg and both of the feet.
For the ideal body, small clusters were observed around the legs and arms. Finally, the own concrete body showed clusters located in the left leg, both of the arms, and parts of the right neck and face. A similar cluster analysis was performed by calculating the CIs across all participants who under-/over-estimated perceived compared to real hip width. The resulting images for each group were subtracted from each other for visualization purposes (e.g. underestimation–overestimation displays the areas that were uniquely significant for under-estimators).
Figure 5a,c,e represent the areas that significantly predicted own abstract, ideal, and own concrete body representations for under- compared to over-estimators, while Fig. 5b,d,f depict the over- versus underestimation contrast. In the own abstract and own concrete body conditions especially, clusters distributed across the whole body signifi- cantly predicted the choices made by under- but not over-estimators.
Discussion In the current study, we investigated the relationship between real and perceived hip width when obtaining own abstract, ideal, and own concrete body representations using the reverse correlation technique. This method produces visual depictions of implicit body representations using a data-driven method26,69. First, while no cor- relation was found between real and perceived width when participants had to choose the body that looked most like their own (own abstract body) and the body they would like to have (ideal body), a negative relationship was observed when making a choice about which body to use for online shopping (own concrete body). However, we observed that CIs of participants who under-estimated their hip width (perceived hip width smaller than real hip width) showed a positive correlation between real and perceived hip width for own abstract body representations. Interestingly, no correlations were observed between perceived hip widths in all three conditions, which might
Own concrete
Figure 1. Correlations between real and perceived hip width. Perceived hip width was derived from the classification images based on participants’ responses during the reverse correlation paradigm. We correlated perceived hip width and real hip width (both in cm) for all three conditions: own abstract (Which of these two bodies looks most like your own?), ideal (Which of these two bodies looks most like the body you would like to have?), and own concrete (Which of these two bodies looks most like the body you would use for online shopping?). Only the latter correlation was significant.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:14451 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93865-7
www.nature.com/scientificreports/
suggest that own abstract, ideal, and own concrete body representations are represented differently. Second, our findings indicated that participants who scored higher on the conscientiousness subscale of the BFI-10 produced CIs with wider hips for own concrete body representations than less conscientious participants. Additionally, we found a positive relationship between real and perceived hip width in the own abstract condition, although only marginally significant, for participants with more negative attitudes towards their body weight, while a negative relationship was found for participants with more positive attitudes.
Third, using a statistical test specifically adapted to CIs produced during reverse correlation paradigms65, different diagnostic areas were identified for the three body representation conditions. Interestingly, the choices that led to these body representations seemed to be predicted by areas distributed across the whole body for under- but not over-estimators.
Our findings replicate previous results showing that no correlation exists between real and perceived hip width when participants are asked to choose a body that looks most like their own in an abstract way26, and extend these findings by indicating that this relationship is also absent for one’s ideal body representation. Importantly, we did observe a significant correlation between real and perceived hip width for participants’ own body representations in a concrete situation. This correlation was negative, indicating that the bigger participants’ real hip width, the smaller perceived hip width of own concrete body CIs (and vice versa).
This is in contrast to studies using explicit measures showing systematic under-41,42,70 or overestimation1,4,71 of perceived body size, irrespective of actual body size. Other research, however, has suggested that overestimation is a defining feature of anorexia nervosa13 (but see50,72), while underestimation is linked to obesity37. Our results suggest that this trend of overestimation for people with smaller bodies and underestimation for people with larger bodies is also observed in a (largely healthy) student sample for implicit body size estimation, but only when this estimation is linked to a real-life context (online shopping; although research has also found a reverse relationship for explicit body size estimation based on body mass index; BMI9).
Furthermore, studies that have looked at body-based scaling have shown that observed objects (including avatars) are perceived relative to the size of one’s own body, rescaling optical information against internal body representations that act as a perceptual reference73–77. More specifically, these studies suggest that individuals who perceive their own body as large judge observed objects as smaller than they are in reality, while the reverse is true for individuals who perceive their own body as small.
The current results indicate that such body-based scaling might be present when implicit body representations are framed within a practical context only, suggesting that a context with real-life implications activates specific processes. In sum, the current results show that the relationship between real and perceived body size depends on the specific context that people are asked to estimate their body size in, which has practical implications. For example, the observation of a negative relationship between real and perceived hip width for body size estimation in a practical, online context has important implications for the development and design of online avatars, as well as for online shopping in general. Research has indicated, for instance, that the impact of virtual try-ons is greatly affected by the congruency between the self and the online avatar/model, and that maximizing this
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Design and Development of Online Avatars |
Design and Development of Online Avatars