Customizing Your Demons: Anxiety Reduction via Anthropomorphizing and Destroying an “Anxiety Avatar”

Abstract

Character customization is a prominent feature in digital games, affording users the ability to tailor one’s virtual self-representation (avatar) to match aspects of their actual or ideal self, influencing psychological well-being. The mental health implications of character customization can be partially explained by self-discrepancy theory, which argues that achieving congruence with one’s avatar reduces cognitive dissonance. However, the role of undesirable self-concepts such as mental health ailments have largely been overlooked in this context despite forming part of one’s identity. In theory, customization of an avatar representing undesirable self-concepts presents a self-regulatory paradox: individuals desire to reduce discrepancies with a self-representation, yet they also desire to enlarge discrepancies with a disliked-self. To reconcile this, two experiments explored the psychological implications of imbuing avatars with undesirable self-concepts. In Study 1 (N = 90), participants customized an avatar to represent anxiety within themselves (i.e., an anxiety avatar). Customization significantly reduced state anxiety compared to a control group, supporting the proposed discrepancy-reduction mechanism. Study 2 (N = 122) employed a 2 (customization: yes, no) × 2 (destruction: yes, no) between-subjects design, with participants either destroying or observing an anxiety avatar. Destruction of customized anxiety avatars resulted in the largest reduction in anxiety among all conditions, supporting the proposed discrepancy-enlargement mechanism. Theoretical and practical implications for the use of avatar-based e-mental health interventions are discussed.

The Effect of Self-Discrepancy on Online Behavior: A Literature Review

“…Individuals with greater virtual self-discrepancy are less likely to experience the avatar as if it were their actual self and they are less likely to obtain optimal and enjoyable experience in Second Life. Pimentel and Kalyanaraman (2020) found that the construction of an avatar with undesirable aspects of the actual self (e.g., physical disabilities) significantly reduces anxiety, which means that players with lower virtual self-discrepancy will experience less anxiety.…”

Identification with Game Characters: Theoretical Explanations, Predictors, and Psychological Outcomes

“…To be able to choose the game character's looks and characteristics is one of the predictors of identification with it. Several studies have shown that being able to customize a game character (in terms of appearance or specialties) positively predicts identification with it (Kim et al 2012, Turkay and Kinzer 2014, Liao et al 2019, Pimentel and Kalyanaraman 2020, Green et al 2021, Teng 2021. Researchers depended on the self-discrepancy perspective while explaining the findings.…”

Anthropomorphization of AI: Opportunities and Risks

“…For example, Snapchat's My AI uses Ope-nAI's APIs underneath. Customization has been long seen as a way to establish self-congruence with users and increases the chances of users anthropomorphizing the systems (Kaiser et al, 2017;Pimentel and Kalyanaraman, 2020;Liu and Tao, 2022;Zhang et al, 2020). For example, telling a chatbot to "Talk like a doctor" allows it to impersonate a doctor, which anthropomorphizes the model to a larger degree than the original general system.…”

“…Customization of systems and brands has long been seen as an effective way to increase anthropomorphization and establish an emotional connection with humans (Zhang et al, 2020;Pimentel and Kalyanaraman, 2020). Thus, although not strictly…”