Avatars in Work Meetings: Correlation Between Photorealism and Appeal

We investigated the effects of realism on acceptability of avatars for work meetings. Our survey of 2509 knowledge workers tested five levels of photorealism using animated GIFs. Avatar styles were rated for usage by: a manager, known colleague and unknown colleague. In all scenarios, we found that higher realism was favored; however fully realistic avatars were sometimes perceived as uncanny by participants. We segmented our results to uncover demographic and firmographic patterns in the survey responses. Lastly, we caveat our findings by evaluating open end responses to provide a qualitative evaluation of factors influencing avatar choices for work meetings. In conclusion, our findings suggest that photorealism is a key attribute in selecting work avatars. However, regional preferences and relationship with work colleagues using the avatar may also play a role. Exploration of other factors influencing work avatar selection is needed to further understand the implications of avatar use in the workplace.