Interpersonal Distance to a Speaking Avatar: Loudness Matters Irrespective of Contents

It is important for us to maintain appropriate interpersonal distance depending on situations in effective and safe communications. We aimed to investigate the effects of speech loudness and clarity on the interpersonal distance towards an avatar in a virtual environment. We found that the louder speech of the avatar made the distance between the participants and the avatar larger than the quiet speech, but the clarity of the speech did not significantly affect the distance. These results suggest that the perception of loudness modulates the interpersonal distance towards the virtual avatar to maintain the intimate equilibrium.