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How to Kill a Greek God: A Meta-Analysis and Critical Review of 14 years of Proteus Effect Research

The Proteus Effect is a phenomenon whereby a user of a virtual environment temporarily adopts attitudes and behaviours that are consistent with stereotypes associated with the appearance of their avatar. A recent meta-analysis (Ratan et al, 2019) estimates that the strength of the Proteus Effect is \"small to medium\" under the de facto descriptors of Cohen (1992). Ratan et al also suggest some meta-analytic regressors which may moderate the overall effect. In this replication and extension of Ratan et al's review, the conditions under which an effect should be observed are made explicit, and a number of potential issues with the previous review are highlighted and addressed. These include conflation of a number of different theories (Virtual Self Modelling, perspective taking), the erroneous inclusion and omission of studies, errors in effect size calculation, and the possible motivated selection of effects. Results reveal that although the Proteus Effect may be a robust effect with several demonstrative studies, the omnibus effect size of the Proteus Effect is be smaller than previously indicated, is sensitive to the inclusion of negative results, and that the moderators suggested in the original meta-analysis do not significantly contribute to the prediction of the effect sizes. It is ultimately argued that the Proteus Effect ought not be embraced as an intervention and is more useful as an indicator of stereotype activations. Suggestions are made for a progressive research line which aims to unpack the Proteus Effect and increase the consistency and variety of predictions it can make, including ways to reduce the effect and allow controllers the freedom to be who they want to be in virtual environments.