Abstract
This chapter evaluates the potential effects of immersion in the Metaverse on cognitive load, including the amplification of personalization effects, leading to addictive behaviours, encasement within digital echo chambers, and detrimental social implications. The Metaverse’s capacity to fulfil desires could foster an illusion of gratification, risking further addiction. Additionally, the study emphasizes the portrayal of virtual reality as a “genuine reality,” as discussed in David Chalmers’ book Reality+ . However, this portrayal overlooks the potential hazards of misusing such technology. The study’s findings indicate that virtual reality, particularly the Metaverse, has a comparable psychological impact to fiction. Lastly, the influence of the Metaverse on empathy is assessed, reflecting on the potential benefits and detriments. The conclusions of the chapter suggest a high potential for manipulation through virtual reality in Metaverse environments, emphasizing the necessity for regulations to safeguard societies at large. The chapter encourages further research to understand, reduce, and manage the risks of Metaverse immersion.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Agatonović M (2022) Computer simulations as fiction in science. Balkan J Philos 14(1):5–10. https://doi.org/10.5840/bjp20221412
Agatonović M (2023a) Review of Reality+. AI and Soc: J Knowl Cult Commun. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-023-01712-2
Agatonović M (2023b) The fiction of simulation: a critique of Bostrom’s simulation argument. AI and Soc: J Knowl Cult Commun 38:1579–1586. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01312-y
Bal PM, Veltkamp M (2013) How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation. PLoS ONE 8(1):e55341. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341
Baumeister RF, Bratslavsky E, Muraven M, Tice DM (1994) Ego depletion: is the active self a limited resource? J Pers Soc Psychol 74(5):1252–1265
Beisbart C (2019) Virtual realism: really realism or only virtually so? A comment on D. J Chalmers’s Petrus Hispanus Lect Disputatio 11(55):297–331. https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2019-0008
Billieux J, Van der Linden M (2010) Problematic use of the internet and self-regulation: a review of the initial studies. Open Addict J 3(1)
Bojic L (2022) Metaverse through the prism of power and addiction: what will happen when the virtual world becomes more attractive than reality? Eur J Futures Res 10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40309-022-00208-4
Bojic L, Bulatovic A, Zikic S (2022) The scary black box: AI driven recommender algorithms as the most powerful social force. Issues Ethnol Anthropol 17(2):715–740. https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v17i2.11
Bojic L, Zaric M, Zikic S (2021) Worrying impact of artificial intelligence and big data through the prism of recommender systems. Issues Ethnol Anthropol 16(3):935–957. https://doi.org/10.21301/eap.v16i3.13
Caplan SE (2002) Problematic internet use and psychosocial well-being: development of a theory-based cognitive–behavioral measurement instrument. Comput Hum Behav 18(5):553–575
Castronova E (2005) Synthetic worlds: the business and culture of online games. University of Chicago Press
Chalmers DJ (2010) The matrix as metaphysics. In: Chalmers DJ (ed) The character of consciousness. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 455–494
Chalmers DJ (2019) The virtual as the digital. Disputatio 11(55):453–486. https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2019-0022
Chalmers DJ (2022) Reality+: virtual world and the problems of philosophy. W. W. Norton & Company, New York
Currie G (2021) Imagining and knowing: the shape of fiction. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Eysenck MW, Derakshan N, Santos R, Calvo MG (2007) Anxiety and cognitive performance: attentional control theory. Emotion 7(2):336–353
Freud S (1920) Beyond the pleasure principle. The Hogart Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London
Fuchs C (2018) Digital demagogue: authoritarian capitalism in the age of trump and twitter. Pluto Press
Hoffman ML (1987) The contribution of empathy to justice and moral judgment. In: Eisenberg N, Strayer J (eds) Empathy and its development. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 47–80. https://doi.org/10.2478/disp-2019-0004
Hofmann W, Friese M, Strack F (2009) Impulse and self-control from a dual-systems perspective. Perspect Psychol Sci 4(2):162–176
Johnson D (2012) Transportation into a story increases empathy, prosocial behavior, and perceptual bias toward fearful expressions. Pers Individ Differ 52(2):150–155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2011.10.005
Kidd DC, Castano E (2013) Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science 342(6156):377–380. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1239918
Levy D (2007) Love and sex with robots: the evolution of human-robot relationships. Harper Perennial
Mar RA, Oatley K (2008) The function of fiction is the abstraction and simulation of social experience. Perspect Psychol Sci 3(3):173–192. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00073.x
McDonnell N, Wildman N (2019) Virtual reality: digital or fictional? Disputatio 11(55):371–397
Muraven M, Baumeister RF (2000) Self-regulation and depletion of limited resources: does self-control resemble a muscle? Psychol Bull 126(2):247–259
Oatley K (2016) Fiction: simulation of social worlds. Trends Cogn Sci 20(8):618–628. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.06.002
Paas F, Tuovinen JE, Tabbers H, Van Gerven PWM (2003) Cognitive load measurement as a means to advance cognitive load theory. Educ Psychol 38(1):63–71
Robinson TE, Berridge KC (2000). The psychology and neurobiology of addiction: an incentive–sensitization view. Addiction, 95(8s2):91–117
Sherman WR, Craig AB (2003) Understanding virtual reality: interface, application, and design. Elsevier
Slater M (2003) A note on presence terminology. Presence Connect 3(3):1–5
Slater M (2009) Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B 364(1535)
Slater M, Sanchez-Vives MV (2016) Enhancing our lives with immersive virtual reality in front. Robot AI 3. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2016.00074
Sora-Domenjó C (2022) Disrupting the “empathy machine”: the power and perils of virtual reality in addressing social issues. Front Psychol 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.814565
Steinberg L (2010) A dual systems model of adolescent risk-taking. Dev Psychobiol 52(3):216–224
Stephenson N (1992) Snow crash. Bantam Books, New York
Sweller J (1988) Cognitive load during problem solving: effects on learning. Cogn Sci 12(2):257–285
Tassinari M, Aulbach MB, Jasinskaja-Lahti I (2022) Investigating the influence of intergroup contact in virtual reality on empathy: an exploratory study using altspacevr. Front Psychol 12:815497. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.815497
Uspenski I, Guga J (2022) Embodying metaverse as artificial life: at the intersection of media and 4E cognition theories in philosophy and society 33(2): 326–345
Walton KL (1990) Mimesis as make-believe: on the foundations of the representational arts. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Woods J (2018) Truth in fiction: rethinking its logic. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72658-8
Yee N, Bailenson J (2007) The proteus effect: the effect of transformed self-representation on behavior. Hum Commun Res 33:271–290
Zuckerberg M (2021) The metaverse and how we will build it together—Connect 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvufun6xer8&ab_channel=Meta
Acknowledgements
This chapter was realized with the support of the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovation of the Republic of Serbia, according to the Agreement on the realization and financing of scientific research.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bojić, L., Agatonović, M., Guga, J. (2024). The Immersion in the Metaverse: Cognitive Load and Addiction. In: Geroimenko, V. (eds) Augmented and Virtual Reality in the Metaverse. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57746-8_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57746-8_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-57745-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-57746-8
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)