The Avatar Effect: How AI, Gaming, and Digital Avatars Are Changing Who We Are

Ep 108. We are witnessing an explosive surge in human-technology interaction—from smartphones, tablets, and touchscreens to AI-driven wearables, virtual assistants, and advanced language models like ChatGPT. The digital interface is no longer just a tool; it's becoming an extension of our identity.

As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, we're seeing a dramatic shift in how people connect with technology on a personal and emotional level. Whether it's through custom game avatars, interactive AI agents, or immersive augmented reality, the lines between the virtual self and real-world identity are rapidly blurring.

Studies are now confirming what psychologists have been hinting at for years: how we interact with digital characters—especially avatars we create—shapes our behavior, self-perception, and emotional states. This phenomenon is known as the Proteus Effect, a powerful cognitive response where our digital selves influence our real-world actions and beliefs.

As we step deeper into AI companionship, neural-connected tech, and behaviorally responsive systems, we must become more conscious of the psychological immersion and its effects. Our brains are wired to respond to visual cues, patterns, and empathy—even if the source is synthetic.

In a world where camouflage can be code, and simulation feels like connection, we must ask: how do we protect our authenticity? As we interface more intimately with digital systems, we must learn to guard our minds as well as our data.

🚨 This is the age of digital identity.
🧠 Be aware. Stay grounded. Walk consciously.

Transcript

Welcome back folks to episode 108 of the Running Man Self-Regulation Skills Project Podcast with me, your host Dr. Armando Dominguez, PhD in Health Psychology, licensed professional counselor and an adjunct professor at our local community college. What we're going to be discussing today is in effect going to be a walk into the uncanny valley. How do we cross that crevasse and also what we are coming to know as the Proteus Effect. Now in this age of uh...

digital interaction at the highest level we've ever experienced. They're probably going to increase as we go as AI starts growing. Our sophistication of digital technology improves as well over time. But as our interactions increase, we're also starting to see increases in associations with those that would be the characters that we play in our games. Now, this isn't anything particularly new since we've been playing video games.

And even in the 1980s when we had the little digital football where there was just a little hash mark that was moving around with buttons, we still kind of associated those things with self and personal performance. But now that we're seeing sophistication and development of characters, being able to pick up new skins and hair and all kinds of clothing and weapons and stuff that you can add to game characters, we start to get a sense of self associated with those things that I've created and chosen for myself.

And those were kind of what we would call an association to a level of self that I would like to aspire to become. Not in all cases perfectly, but this is enough for the sake of our argument today about what it is that's occurring that we call the Proteus Effect and really how it's very closely tied to how our neurological system adapts to environment and how we kind of hijack that for game's sake.

And it's become an incredibly powerful industry, multi-billion dollar industry, mind you. And it's affecting not only how we do, but actually how we are and how we relate with each other. So without further ado, Proteus Effect. So when we're looking at what we call game interface interaction, often the characters that we pick are the things that we point to ourselves and say, hey, I'd like that. Or I can imagine myself doing this. This is exciting.

armando (02:47.789)
And there is definitely an imaginative, very fun oriented quality to that. And certainly this isn't a negative or dark argument of any sorts, but rather pointing out of the fact that even though we may have crept up on the uncanny valley in the sense of robotics, whenever Japanese researcher coined the term, we are starting to see that less and less of that valley is going into that sense of shock and awe and

incredulity whenever I'm looking at something that looks so lifelike but it's not quite so human because we've actually filled that crevasse, so to speak, with simulacra that are really highly resembling what we call human and those are the simulacrum that I'm speaking of are those that are our characters and the graphics and the depth and design getting so sophisticated that they're very hard to tell.

the apart from those things that are actually human and real in a 3D sense. So this lends itself to believability and makes gameplay so much more fun and exciting and immersive. But there's also quality wherever our lower brain that determines shape and also pattern for survival reasons can't tell the difference. So our narrative in the higher cognitive sense as long as we're safe, we know, no, that's not real. And I'm just having fun, but

the level at which we see and perceive visually and interpret is not the part that makes reasoning. And this is why the simulacra that we interface with can be very influential to us. I'm not saying negatively, but there are negatives there, of course, but there are just as many positives and I want to point both of those out. But the fact is that there's an influence, and it's a very powerful one, at a level that is very hypnotic, highly suggestible.

And depending on what the suggestion is, could be very salutary, it could be healthy for us. In the sense of if we're looking at things in the future, such as wearable devices that we use to let's say measure heart rate and breathing, this sort of stuff, they're gonna be those that are gonna be things that will bring us to feel like we are those characters maybe that we want to be like. And there's a quality of belief that goes with that, functional. I can do this belief. And whenever we take into consideration that our seer is our believer,

armando (05:09.138)
And even if things may not be up to snuff in the sense that they're honest and truthfully 3D and real, but yet they put off enough of an image that it's believable, such as the cardboard cutouts that have glossy pictures of cheerleaders selling beer, for instance, at a distance, you know, is just a flat one dimensional thing. whenever you get up close, you realize that's pretty realistic. The details are incredible, just like a picture second only to the individual themselves. And we know consciously that that's not happening.

But at the same time that part of it identifies it and recognizes that it is that lifelike, in quotes, it cannot tell the difference because it is so lifelike. And when we consider the uncanny valley and what was noticed with the robotics approaching what we do as human and that we were trying to get our robotics to be able to replace as far as whether it be work or this sort of thing, then there is definitely a quality that is

not unlike a pre-Henshal tale that a monkey might have that is used for work. Most of us don't have that, but those monkeys that do have it can make use of it. And we realize that there is an aliveness, a certain human quality. I believe the Japanese term that, jin, a character, a human character. And it is that that gives it that sense of life, liveliness, and aliveness, if you will.

as a description of what it is that we see that make it so much easier to associate with. And not unlike our natural tendency to want to be part of a team, part of the village, part of the group, tribe, this sort of thing. We also look for similarities and things that carry that much of a very similitude that let's say we have an amputee that has a hand that is rubberized on the outside to feel more natural but is actually resembling what the hand looked like.

in the sense that it has the digits and the shape of the hand for the most part, then we have a sense that it looks like my other hand used to. And there's a measure of acceptance versus having a mechanical truncheon that pinches and pulls and pushes and twists based on my muscular contraction, this sort of thing, and doesn't look quite human. There's definitely a difference between the two. But we're realizing that at some level we accept based on how similar things are, how things look.

armando (07:31.684)
In the sense of organized sports and team, being in the military, knowing what enemy might be wearing, what they look like, versus what our compatriots and partners in our platoon might look like. Or even if you're playing soccer or American football, for instance, and you're wearing jerseys that are all the same color, you know that that person's on your team. Just by virtue of what it looks like, it minimizes the pattern recognition and makes us more quick to respond.

to those that do not fit are a recognized pattern. Most people don't pay attention to that deeply, but I do because it is something that we do notice. And those are recognition signals that happen within fractions of a fraction of a moment, incredibly fast. Now, back to what it is we're talking about having to do with that, is artificial intelligent replacement of human skills and jobs, for instance. And if those machines

are looking human life, tend to associate with or even appreciate what's going on. Now, whenever we're looking at interaction with other people, real people, then we do have some influence from our avatars, our electronic avatars to us and how we see ourselves. There have been numbers of studies that has been done that were looking at not only confidence, but self-confidence in social settings. And often those people that were studying with college students

were given characters that they had to play out in a virtual world. had an attractive avatar and then they would have those that would have what they called the pig nose or pig face avatar, the one that was not quite so attractive. And all the numbers and measurements and stuff like that were virtually there so they knew who it was that they were playing, the role they were playing so to speak, but there was an association of that into the character that they would take care of themselves and they would even go so much.

as to feed them either a very healthy diet or unhealthy diet where they would lose weight, gain weight, or get in really good shape and get a lot of attention in the game, this sort of stuff. But yet, whenever they were interacting with people in the real world after they had gone through their study, so to speak, where they were practicing for the study by playing the virtual world, the virtual character, they realized that those people that were playing the attractive character in their virtual game, so to speak,

armando (09:52.272)
was influencing how they would act whenever they interacted with real people. if you had a really good-looking avatar, you would act as if, and you would have a higher level of self-confidence. And the way you put yourself out there, if you were the attractive avatar person, than if you were the one that had the pug face and was not nearly as attractive. And they noted that there was either a similarity or a drop in that self-confidence and that there was more of an attempt

to compensate for said lack of hype or whatever it is that they felt self-conscious about. And once again, very uncanny, very, very telling because the influence isn't just from us to the game in the sense that we make the character play, but rather what the character is, how we represent them, and the values we give them, the way we interpret those influence how we act outside. So there are those that get really

involved in gameplay whenever there is the the character play and Including those wherever you might be playing video games that are like racing that sort of stuff But where there's a skill involved but not really looking at yourself Also, there's a good bit of variance but whatever it is that we consider winning or gaining in those games has some carryover and influence because we feel good There's definitely a dopamine hit. There's definitely a feel good, but there's more influence beyond just

Enjoyment and feeling good there's influence in the way that we interact socially There's an impact socially from the avatar to us now I don't think that was essentially designed into the game other than enjoyment But we've noted that there is some play that does affect us because depending on how we associate With that character. It's almost like we become similar or that we consider those characters ourself now

There is a false hand illusion that occurs whenever people start seeing images of a hand that's not theirs and they're seeing it reach for things and doing things and yet whenever they see the hand that's not theirs but they're watching it get hurt. Not only when we see people fall on videos and the funny videos, not that I enjoy seeing people get hurt, I don't, but there's some that are really hilarious. one really gets hurt, they just kind of...

armando (12:13.653)
laugh along in the process but whenever we see something like that or somebody gets injured or we see an injury we wince looking at a screen that we know is not us but yet there is a sense of what the French call couvade and that is pain of the mother kind of like what dad would have whenever he's waiting for baby and mom has morning sickness this sort of thing we not unlike that associate into what it is that we see visually we have to understand that

Unless we are congenitally blind, how we represent in our mind is largely visual, and the largest number of our neurons are visually oriented that have to do with perception. it's a heavy orientation, but also indicative of the influence it has on us, and how not only we experience things moment to moment at the perceptual level, but also how we think as result, and the development of said beliefs that come as a result of what we're perceiving, and how we interpret those signals. Now,

What does this have to do with self-regulation is the question I like to ask and it's a really important one. It has a lot to do with how we self-regulate based on how much we believe something to be or not or what we may believe something to be, however inaccurate or accurate. And these are important things. Now I did want to point out some of the positives and negatives of this. Some of the positives are is that there are some improvements in performance such as the confidence going out and about.

So what are some of the negatives? Well, some of the negatives are that people, whenever they have lost game play or they've lost game data, for instance, and it's a character that they've built up to a really super high level and that there's a loss because of power outage or somebody turns it off or there's a break of the machine or somebody does something nefarious like damaging the machine just to get back at somebody. There's more than just the damage to the hardware itself.

that association of I'm living a life and even if it's in a virtual sense, even if it's we know that it is a game, but there's an investment that one puts in of life, attention, time, and we can't get those back. So there's definitely an unspoken value often that is involved with that. And whenever we have to come to terms with the fact that, that got destroyed or I have to start again.

armando (14:35.121)
there's a sense of mourning, a sense of loss, there's definitely a sense of loss involved with that. And it is very real, it's not made up just because it was in a virtual game, because you're playing a real 3D experience, even though you're doing a virtual game. On the inside it's imaginary of you, but in the game itself it's just, you know, electronic signal, but yet there's this quality of experience, because you were experiencing it in life.

Whenever people do such things or experience such things, it is painful. It is legitimately painful. And there is a sense of loss. And it's not really that it isn't a real thing, because at some level it is, because we've trained ourselves to that. Now, that is part of the negative in that it can cause a depression, cause can't, anger, anxiety, this sort of stuff. So those aren't made up, and it's not virtual when you experience the negative feeling as result. So there's definitely a very real

quality of belief that goes with that. Now I'm going to rewind this a little bit to probably the early 1970s where Dr. Ramachandran, he was educated in India and a great neuroscientist and he is the progenitor of the mirror therapy that has now taken off him. Has been used now for decades for people that have amputations and they have phantom limb pain or they use literally a $12 Walmart mirror that you can get anywhere.

for the leg wherever you put the leg on the side of where the amputated leg may hang from the end of a chair and you set the mirror that you're looking at the leg that is not amputated for instance on the right side of the left side is going for instance and the mirror will reflect what would be the equivalence of the reflection of the right but would look like the left if we look down at it and part of stopping the phantom link pain is to get the signal to

balance out so to speak because it's going out not coming back and the brain because it doesn't get signaled back will continue to signal to the extreme to where it becomes very painful and distressing to an individual so by learning how to wiggle the toes and how to move the leg there is a sense of conditioning and belief quality even though you know that is just a reflection at the higher cortical level at the lower part of the brain it starts to believe what it is that it sees even though like the

armando (16:55.939)
cardboard cut out of the cheerleader at the beer store, we know it's a flat image, but it's realistic enough. And if it's realistic enough, it's believable enough, and therefore compelling enough with practice, it becomes assumed to be no less than that. And that's a pattern recognition that will also assist in turning off that signal that is muscular, should be muscular reflection that becomes pain, because it's not receding and it's not stopping. So those are some important things to think about.

Why this is important to what it is that we're discussing today is the fact that it is a visualization skill. It is a visualization not unlike if we were to play a video game and there is an association quality of belief that comes along with and we're realizing that there's an entrainment or a practice or repetition of said activity. So the more you do it, the stronger the belief over time because it becomes something we become skilled at and therefore becomes natural and it's hard to stop.

And that's why often there's such negative responses to losing the game, the broken game, or losing data, that sort of stuff, even though it's not so much the data, but rather what that data represented and how I associated and believed it to be. And there's definitely a quality of self-involved. There's definitely a quality of not only self-efficacy, how good I am, but also how effective I am. Ones and zeros, I'm successful at, at headshots in whatever military game.

or doing Super Mario a certain way, even though it's a very much a caricature that one couldn't humanly be in the truest sense, but one somehow associates the good feelings and the success, and then that's mine, I own that. And that also becomes part of me, owning of that good feeling as we play. So these aren't false things that come up and there's definitely a reality to it, even though it is entertainment industry type stuff.

But what's important is realizing that there is an influence from the game to the human as much as there is human control within the game. And if we identify that, we realize that there's some depth that we're moving towards, once again, within that uncanny valley to where that valley will no longer be a valley, but it's going to be a mere crack in the sidewalk. And we're going to walk across it and soon we won't be able to tell the difference. And we're seeing some inklings of that. So is that a danger? I don't know.

armando (19:19.704)
I can't say that I think so right now. Do I think it's phenomenal in the sense that we're moving in that direction? Yes, I think AI has a lot of potential for great good, as much as great things that we're not aware of or even know the fullest capacity of the impact. So we're definitely walking in Eureka new ground. And those are good things to pay attention to. Now, the reason I wanted to talk about this today really has to do with how do I self-regulate?

And how much does my belief have anything to do with what it is that I do whenever things stress me out, for instance, or I don't feel well? Well, video games are often used as coping tools where we learn to lean on them, and that's okay. So people do that. But also we have to learn how to self-regulate without the externals, so to speak, being able to take a walk, learning how to breathe and manage and control and maybe even do some exercise. And these aren't diametrically opposed things, but rather they're options that are on the continuum of

How can I manage self? How can I regulate those things that get uncomfortable? And having more options is always better, especially if I don't feel up to taking an option, especially if I'm particularly stressed or scared for that matter. So just some things to think about once again. One of the important things that I was thinking about whenever I was thinking about those people that have to deal with amputees that have had to learn how to use the mirror.

is that there is definitely a quality of life moving forward. There are some that feel stuck whenever these things happen. And to me, it was just a phenomenal idea. So to say that the games are bad for you is wrong. don't think so. I think they're helpful. I think also having a healthy dose of what we call gaming is okay too. And same thing with exercise. Anything to exercise can be healthy, unhealthy, or unhealthy on the continuum for sure.

Now, I think that there is such a thing as empathy that we experience with people. And this is probably an offshoot or extension of an empathy quality of sorts that maybe is at the level that is not easily verbalized, but definitely experienced at the gut level, at the body level. And those are important things to think about as well. Just as much as we see, and once when somebody else gets hurt, we have that associative quality. Just as much as we see these games that we play, we have that ideal

armando (21:45.229)
of empathy of sorts that occurs and sometimes we don't have to think it into being, it's just something we gut feel because we might have compassion or a heart for something that is living and we don't want those things to hurt even if it is virtual. So just some things to keep in mind. I certainly wanted to discuss this today because it was definitely a fascinating topic and I want to tell you thank you on this late Sunday evening just for passing some time with me and let me visit with you again and I certainly appreciate those of you that have been sending me feedback.

If you have any feedback for me, send it to the gmail at running man get skills project at gmail and please visit the YouTube channel and subscribe and share and hit the notification button there. That channel is growing a little at a time. I certainly appreciate that. And of course, this podcast is available on all platforms. Your podcasts are found and I see the other day that in Chile we were in, I think 40th or 50th place.

for mental health and health and wellness and that was kind of surprising but really kind of cool and I know that there are quite a few people around the world listening and I appreciate your listenership and certainly there's going to be more from where this came and once again moving towards interview format trying to see about getting donation things set up to get more equipment this sort of thing but still working on those things I am the one man show and I certainly hope that y'all are having a great interior weekend

and beginning of a week and I certainly hope to speak to you all soon once again. And if you have once again any comments, questions, or any requests for that matter, please send them to me at the Gmail. Have a good evening, take care, walk well.