Associations between communicator gender and animal avatar appearance: behavioral and eye-tracking evidence from animal avatar communication

Avatar-mediated communication is often used to reduce interpersonal bias by altering avatar appearance. However, information from the communicator may also affect how the avatar is perceived. We examined whether vocal characteristics related to communicator gender are associated with animal avatar appearance in an avatar identification task. Forty participants were assigned to four groups (N = 10 per group) defined by actor gender (female vs. male) and real-avatar type (cat vs. dog). Participants completed a dialogue task while viewing two avatars side by side. One avatar mirrored the actor's facial and head movements in real time (real avatar), whereas the other showed pre-recorded, non-contingent movements (fake avatar). Gaze allocation was recorded throughout, and participants identified the real communication partner after the conversation. Identification outcomes (correct identification or misidentification) were analyzed using binary logistic regression with actor gender, real-avatar type, and their interaction. Fixation to the fake avatar was quantified across three time segments and analyzed using a mixed-design analysis of variance crossing actor gender, real-avatar type, and time segment. The actor gender × real-avatar type interaction was not significant (p = 0.075), although correct identification was 8/10 in each of the other three groups but only 2/10 in the female actor × dog avatar group. Fixation to the fake avatar was significantly greater in this group (p < 0.001). Participants in this group tended to identify the alternative cat avatar as the communication partner. These findings suggest that vocal characteristics and avatar appearance may interact to influence perception during avatar-mediated communication.