Stop staring at your reflection, you narcissist!

Virtual identity formation through mirror dwelling in social VR

Twice, 2022 (Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxz05uJrvuk)

February 21th, 2024

Aleksandra Zheleva & Annabel De Clercq

It was two o'clock in the afternoon on a Monday, and I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My hair was blue, I was wearing a dinosaur outfit, and I have to admit, I looked pretty cool. The person next to me had opted for a more subdued look, with short brown hair and a black suit. Would this person look like this in real life? And more importantly, did I recognize myself?

Participants looking at themselves in the mirror in the VRChat room of the experiment.

Yes, the story I just told did not take place in our familiar reality, but in a Social Virtual Reality (SVR) world. In SVR you communicate with others through virtual avatars, using a VR headset. The role of these avatars is crucial as they reflect your identity in the virtual world.

But does the connection you have with your virtual avatar also affect your SVR experience? And how does this bond arise between who you are in the “real” world and who you choose to be in the virtual world?

One possible way that users form this connection with their avatar is through mirror dwelling. This involves spending time in front of a virtual mirror looking at their avatar, either alone or interacting with others. Although this peculiar behaviour is very popular on SVR platforms such as VRChat, it also raises controversy. Discussions in the Reddit community show that some consider themselves dedicated mirror dwellers, while others label the behaviour as strange, antisocial, or sometimes even narcissistic.

So, why is mirror dwelling such a common phenomenon?

Participants communicating while looking at themselves in the mirror in the VRChat room of the experiment.

To answer this question we looked at the impact of mirror dwelling on presence (how 'present' you felt in the virtual environment) and avatar embodiment (the feeling of connection with and control over your virtual avatar). We believed that if virtual identity development were to take place during mirror dwelling, people who look more at themselves in the mirror should also feel more present and connected to their avatar.

We asked 72 participants to first create a personalized avatar, after which they explored a SVR environment for fifteen minutes. In this room, they could interact with another person whom they hadn’t met before), and there was also a mirror. After the experience, participants completed a questionnaire about their mirror-dwelling behaviour, feelings of presence and avatar embodiment, as well as their feelings of self-recognition and identity development when seeing their reflection in the mirror (i.e., the mirror stage).

A participant wearing the Meta Quest 2 in the lab while they are in the VRChat room of the experiment.

What did we find?

The findings show that participants who were more actively engaged in mirror dwelling, and therefore looked more at themselves in the virtual mirror, experienced an increased sense of presence and embodiment. Furthermore, these individuals also developed a stronger sense of self-recognition from seeing their reflection. This indicates that the mirror stage played a greater role in the formation of their virtual identity.

So, are these people simply narcissistic? No.

As it turns out - there's a lot more to staring at your own reflection in a virtual mirror. For one, it can open the door to constructing the virtual version of yourself. It can also lead to shaping, recognizing, and identifying with your virtual self.

Is this all there is to it? Once again the answer is no.

Mirror dwelling, especially as looked through the prism of an identity formation process, seems to encompass many more nuances. It could be related to people’s urge to break away from the “real” world’s social norms or it could be driven by SVR’s social norms. It could be beneficial for avatar embodiment but it could be detrimental to making social connections.

A selection of Reddit comments on mirror dwelling threads.

Where do we go from here?

In a world that is increasingly being shaped by virtual representations (think of Meta’s highly publicized metaverse), it's not just about existing in these spaces but actively understanding the dynamics at play. So, let's take a step beyond observation, and actively engage in understanding the nuances of avatar identification.

After all, our understanding today shapes the experiences of tomorrow, making it imperative to pave the way for a healthy coexistence between our virtual and physical selves.

This research was carried out with the help of Annabel De Clercq and Emma Emmerechts as a part of the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO Fellowship: 1G6522N) project.