How Harassment Shapes Self-Perception and Well-Being in Social VR: Evidence from a Controlled Lab Study

Social Virtual Reality (SVR) allows users to meet and build relationships through embodied avatars and real-time interaction in virtual spaces. While embodiment can strengthen social connections and presence, it can also intensify negative encounters, making SVR particularly vulnerable to harassment. Despite frequent reports of verbal, visual, and "physical" violations in SVR, little is known about how harassment reshapes users' self-perception, including their sense of embodiment, self-identification, closeness, and avatar customization preferences. We conducted a controlled experiment with 52 participants who experienced either a neutral or a harassment condition in a scenario modeled after real SVR incidents. Participants perceived the harassing peer as significantly more negative, annoying, and disturbing than the neutral peer. Contrary to prior reports, harassment did not significantly affect well-being measures, including emotional state, self-esteem, and physiological arousal, within this controlled scenario. However, participants reported stronger bodily change, attributed more of their own attitudes and emotions to their avatars, and increased interpersonal distance when personal space was invaded. Self-reported coping strategies included ignoring, stepping back, using humor, and retaliating. Notably, avatar customization preferences shifted across conditions. Participants in the neutral condition favored personalized avatars, whereas those in the harassment condition more frequently preferred anonymity in public spaces. Together, these findings demonstrate that harassment in SVR not only exploits embodiment but also reshapes self-perception. We further contribute methodological insights into how harassment can be ethically and reproducibly studied in controlled SVR-like experiments.