In Social Virtual Reality (VR), people use avatars to express identity. But how different social contexts influence the weighting of identity aspects people attribute to avatars, and the potential impact on avatar switching to their perception of identity consistency, remains unclear. To address this gap, our study employed a questionnaire-based survey with 100 participants. We found that people place greater emphasis on expressing their age, aesthetics and culture through avatars, relative to other identity aspects. Whereas attributes, such as one's physical disabilities and mental health, are consistently hidden. Education and social status are context-dependent. Beyond adjusting these components, users also employed complete avatar switching as a strategy for meeting social expectations and protecting privacy. Furthermore, although people perceived identity change when switching avatars, their core identity was considered stable. This study advances knowledge of identity practices in digital spaces, and offers insights for designing inclusive Social VR platforms that support multi-context identity expression.
ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems