Abstract
Virtual doppelgängers are human representations in virtual environments with photorealistic resemblance to individuals. Previous research has shown that doppelgängers can be effective in persuading users in the health domain. An experiment explored the potential of using virtual doppelgängers in addition to a traditional public health campaign message to heighten the perception of personal relevance and risk of sugar-sweetened beverages. Both virtual doppelgängers and an unfamiliar virtual human (i.e., virtual other) used in addition to a health pamphlet were effective in increasing risk perception compared to providing just the pamphlet. Virtual doppelgängers were more effective than virtual others in increasing perceived personal relevance to the health message. Self-referent thoughts and self presence were confirmed as mediators.
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Ahn, S.J.(., Fox, J., Hahm, J.M. (2014). Using Virtual Doppelgängers to Increase Personal Relevance of Health Risk Communication. In: Bickmore, T., Marsella, S., Sidner, C. (eds) Intelligent Virtual Agents. IVA 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 8637. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09767-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09767-1_1
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