Perfect Avatars Are Scary, The Risk of Matrix Syndrome

Banish the mere purchases of the past only for real consumers. Unbridled shopping has also conquered the smartphone and the fashion of the moment is to dress up your own avatars . This is what the American fashion giant Coach, born in a small family laboratory in Manhattan in 1941 and reaching 5 billion dollars in turnover, thought. The campaign “Find your courage” features the virtual human Imma. The message calls for the courage to be real by crossing virtual worlds . The collection invites users to dress up their avatars with the latest models and has landed on Roblox and Zepeto.

Far from being a sporadic phenomenon. The Pandora's box that has now been opened tells of an exponential growth of these non-real figures that inhabit screens and everyday life. In the last two years there has been an explosion of avatars, with a projection of 270 billion dollars by 2030. A market that is rewriting the rules of influencer marketing and that is already worth 10 billion dollars in America alone. But Europe is not sitting back: already today over 60% of top European brands adopt virtual influencers in their campaigns.

The age of the avatar overturns storytelling and relationships. This is also what emerges from the Reuters Institute report, which highlights the Matrix syndrome: more and more young people use ChatGpt and other artificial intelligence systems to get information, considering the new technology as neutral and the world as a digital simulation. In the meantime, this year BMW launched a virtual avatar on its website to guide users in choosing models and financial plans and Nike has integrated customizable avatars into the metaverse for virtual shopping.

But there's more. Today these figures are increasingly taking the place of flesh-and-blood creators and are becoming so similar to humans that they seem real. But when they are not in their behavior (even fallible ones) they can create disorientation. It is the uncanny valley phenomenon, a theory introduced by Masahiro Mori that describes the feeling of discomfort or repulsion that people feel when faced with objects or entities that resemble human beings, but are not entirely like them. "As robots become more similar to humans, they seem more familiar and acceptable to us. But the similarity causes uneasiness, almost repulsion. It is the uncanny valley", wrote Mori way back in 1970.

"It's the paradox of similarity: the more realistic an avatar is, the more it sometimes generates discomfort if perceived as almost human. This is the reason why a robot like R2-D2 from Star Wars doesn't bother us, while the Visitors, humanoid reptiles that can pretend to be human, are scary. The principle seems to apply in business too: behaving almost like humans is perceived as progress, while wanting to appear human and be recognized as almost human creates rejection. However, be careful of the fact that the uncanny valley is not a golden rule, but a tendency of a part of the population", says Lucio Lamberti, professor of marketing at the Polimi School of Management and Scientific Director of the Behavioral Research in Immersive Environment Lab at the Department of Management Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano.