Abstract
Personal space (PS) in virtual reality (VR) may depend on individual characteristics. This study examines the influence of an individual characteristic, "self-consciousness," on PS in VR. The strength of self-consciousness was measured using the self-consciousness scale and PS in VR by the stop distance method for 25 participants. A male and a female avatar were moved in three directions: forward, thirty degrees left, and right. A three-factorial mixed ANOVA of public self-consciousness, the avatars' direction, and the gender difference between the avatars and participants revealed that in the low public self-consciousness group, PS was significantly larger for the opposite gender. This result indicates that resistance to the opposite gender differs in VR. The results of the three-factorial mixed ANOVA for private self-consciousness revealed that its main effect was significant, and PS was larger in the high group, which suggested that the high private self-consciousness group's suspicion was reflected in VR.
