A Study on the Effects of Different Counselor Avatar Appearances and Seriousness of Client Problems

Abstract

Under difficult COVID-19 situations, restricted movements and increasing stress demand casual counseling. Counseling in a virtual space would lower the psychological barrier to consultation by concealing the client and the counselor’s figure. This study examines whether the willingness to consult would change by the seriousness of consultation and the different appearances of the counselor’s avatar. As a result, in the serious consultation situation, the willingness to consult with the avatar in a white coat was high. In the informal consultation situation, the willingness to consult with the avatar wearing a hood was high. Furthermore, with eye-tracking, we found that people’s attentive areas were different by the situation and by the appearance of the avatar. These results suggest the potential for the avatar counseling system in the Metaverse and remote virtual reality (VR) counseling.