Popularity of the metaverse: Embodied social presence theory perspective

Guihua Zhang; Junwei Cao; Dong Liu; Jie Qi

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.997751

Popularity of the metaverse: Embodied social presence theory perspective

Front Psychol. 2022 Sep 29:13:997751. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.997751. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Guihua Zhang¹, Junwei Cao², Dong Liu¹, Jie Qi^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Business, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea.
² School of Business, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
³ Department of Global Business, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Sociology, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea.

Abstract

With Facebook's name changing to Meta, the metaverse concept has become popular again. There are many indications that the current fashionableness of the metaverse is not driven by technical factors, rather related to the public hype. To clarify the reasons for the increasing popularity of the concept, this study develops a model based on embodied social presence theory. We surveyed 292 metaverse users, and analyzed the obtained data using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results show that the main technical factors influencing the metaverse popularity do not significantly predict users' embodied presence and embodied co-presence, while users' imagination positively predicts their embodied presence in the metaverse and positively influences users' willingness to continuously participate through the multiple mediating effects of embodied presence and co-presence. The results of this study confirm, to some extent, that user imagination triggered by public opinion drives the popularity of the metaverse.

Keywords: embodied co-presence; embodied presence; embodied social presence; imagination; metaverse.