“…A wide range of research has examined the relationship between the self and self-representing objects (e.g., avatars). The arguably most common concept, identification, can be understood as the psychological link between identity and other people or objects (Sanford, 1955), fictional or mediated characters (Cohen, 2001), or avatars (Hefner et al, 2007;Klimmt et al, 2010;Van Looy et al, 2012), though debates about specific definitions are ongoing (Bowman et al, 2020;Downs et al, 2019;McDade-Montez & Dore, 2020). Avatar customization research often incorporates Goffman's self-presentation theory (1959), noting that just as we have a frontstage (i.e., conventionally appropriate) and backstage (i.e., arguably intentionally hidden) version of ourselves, people may also use similar selection processes when designing their avatars (Messinger et al, 2019).…”