Towards Virtual Humans without Gender Stereotyped Visual Features

Animations have become increasingly realistic with the evolution of Computer Graphics (CG). In particular, human models and behaviors have been represented through animated virtual humans. Gender is a characteristic related to human identification, so virtual humans assigned to a specific gender have, in general, stereotyped representations through movements, clothes, hair, and colors in order to be understood by users as desired by designers. An important area of study is determining whether participants’ perceptions change depending on how a virtual human is visually presented. Findings in this area can help the industry guide the modeling and animation of virtual humans to deliver the expected impact to the public. In this paper, we reproduce using an animated CG baby, a previous perceptual study conducted in real life aimed to assess gender bias about a baby. Our research indicates that simply textually reporting a virtual human’s gender may be sufficient to create a perception of gender that affects the participant’s emotional response so that stereotyped behaviors can be avoided.