Humanizing Metaverse: Psychological involvement and masstige value in retail versus tourism platforms

Across two experimental studies, this research puts forward the concept of avatars' self-representation and regulatory message framing to discover psychological involvement and masstige value in retail and tourism platforms, demonstrating how avatar self-representation and message framing can potentially indicate Metaverse psychological involvement in the Metaverse. The proteus effect was applied to study avatar falsity. The promotion/prevention regulatory focus theory was employed to examine the effect of message framing in hypothetical retail and tourism platforms in Study 1 (n = 846). Further determinants of masstige value were captured using the masstige theory. In parallel with Study 1, Study 2 (n = 817) adopted real-world examples of the Metaverse—Gucci Vault Plaza (Retail) and Baidu Xi Rang (Tourism) to equally examine the effect of users' psychological involvement on Metaverse involvement via masstige value. Respondents were allocated to either a self-promotion or self-verification avatar condition. The results demonstrated significant downstream effects of these specific self-promotion and self-verification categories, thereby contributing to an important conceptual subdimension in the measurement and understanding of online self-perception within the context of avatars. When participants imagined using a self-verification avatar in the prevention-focused message condition, significant effects were observed. Further, a Metaverse platform is a critical factor that affects masstige. Exploring the masstige value at the Metaverse demonstrates the relationship between self-enhancement and masstige desire for luxury that underscores Metaverse involvement. The research presented a critical insight into the carryover effects of self-representation of avatars that can establish a new form of meta-interaction. This research provides insights into technology in virtual retail and tourism Metaverse applications to provide users with more psychologically authentic solutions within the Metaverse.