When Faces Are Masked: Exploring Emotional Expression Through Body Postures in Virtual Reality

As simulation advances in healthcare training, understanding how body-only signals convey emotions in virtual environments is crucial, particularly with masked virtual agents. This study involved 41 nursing students evaluating 16 faceless fear and surprise postures to assess their realism and the emotion conveyed. While well-recognized in 2D human representations, only three of 16 postures were correctly identified by more than 50% of participants in a 3D virtual agent. These results highlight the impact of virtual agent design on emotional recognition and the need for rigorous testing and refinement to improve emotional expressiveness and realism.