  While avatars have grown in popularity in social settings, their use in the
workplace is still debatable. We conducted a large-scale survey to evaluate
knowledge worker sentiment towards avatars, particularly the effects of realism
on their acceptability for work meetings. Our survey of 2509 knowledge workers
from multiple countries rated five avatar styles for use by managers, known
colleagues and unknown colleagues.
  In all scenarios, participants favored higher realism, but fully realistic
avatars were sometimes perceived as uncanny. Less realistic avatars were rated
worse when interacting with an unknown colleague or manager, as compared to a
known colleague. Avatar acceptability varied by country, with participants from
the United States and South Korea rating avatars more favorably. We
supplemented our quantitative findings with a thematic analysis of open-ended
responses to provide a comprehensive understanding of factors influencing work
avatar choices.
  In conclusion, our results show that realism had a significant positive
correlation with acceptability. Non-realistic avatars were seen as fun and
playful, but only suitable for occasional use.
