Decision-Making Styles in Metaverse: Effects of Immersion and Embodiment

Abstract

Decision-making is a vital skill of our daily cognitive arsenal. The rise of virtual reality (VR) worlds like the metaverse, have created a new need to investigate human behavior under a technologically novel and multisensory prism. In this study, we experimentally investigate types of decision-making in artificial realities mediated by different levels of immersion (PC monitor vs. VR HMD) and sense of embodiment (self-motion vs. self-anchored). Participants (N=183) conducted a daily-life decision-making task of financial allocation, based on evaluating either a 3D graph or 2D graph containing price information across different periods. Five decision-making styles are evaluated including Rational, Intuitive, Dependent, Avoidant, and Spontaneous. Our results indicate that decision-making styles do not differ between diverse virtual realities, and instead remain similar to the control 2D condition. However, due to the flexible nature of decision-making it is possible that content and environmental factors are still likely to influence decision-making in VR experiences.