Avatar body dimensions and men's body image

•We examine men's body image relative to the physical dimensions of their avatars.•Avatars typically are thinner than men's actual body and similar to their ideal.•Avatars typically are more muscular than either their actual or ideal.•Disparity between avatar and actual bodies predicts body change behaviours.•Avatar dimensions are relevant to real-world body image and may be compensatory.

Two online surveys examined the significance of the visual analogues, or ‘avatars’, men (total N = 266) create and use online. Two-dimensional (adiposity × muscle) somatomorphic matrices revealed that avatars are generally thinner than their creator's actual body and similar to their ideal, but more muscular than either their actual or ideal. Men's ratings of the importance of their avatar's appearance correlated with their actual weight and muscle concerns, and disparity between their avatar and actual body dimensions predicted their offline context body change concerns additional to that accounted for by disparity between their ideal and actual bodies. Together with the observation that men also reported higher self-esteem, less social interaction anxiety and less social phobia while online (which correlated with the time they spent online), these results suggest that the physical dimensions of avatars used in social interactions online may serve a compensatory function.