The Proteus Effect: How Avatars Influence Their Users’ Self-perception and Behaviour

The Proteus Effect, introduced by Yee and Bailenson (), suggests that users of a virtual environment adapt their behaviour to the characteristics of their respective avatars. Because numerous studies and experiments concerning the Proteus Effect have been published since 2007, we herein provide a literature review and evaluate the theoretical framework. Based on the comparison of their findings and conclusions about the theoretical framework of the effect and its explanatory approaches such as self-perception theory and priming, we classify these studies with regard to self-similarity, wishful identification, and embodied presence. This allows for revealing parallels to the processes of self-identification.