Research On User Cyber-Aggression In The Metaverse Field

In January 2022,the State Council issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Digital Economy",proposing to deepen the development of the digital economy and take the industrial digital transformation to a new level.In November of the same year,the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and several other departments jointly issued the "Action Plan for the Integration and Development of Virtual Reality and Industry Applications(2022-2026)",proposing to achieve large-scale application of virtual reality in important economic and social industries.As an important component of the digital economy,the digitalization of industries,the digitalization of digital industries,the digitalization of governance,and the valorization of data will become the basis for the development of the metaverse.In this environment of policy support,technological innovation,and academic exploration,the integration of the metaverse with various fields of society will become even closer.While the metaverse brings about changes,it also presents some new issues in terms of digital social governance such as ethics,morality,and law.As one of the more widespread and difficult problems to govern in traditional internet contexts,cyberaggression requires forward-looking exploration in the metaverse domain.Based on thorough literature research and experiences on the metaverse platform,we propose the following research questions: Does the highly immersive environment of the metaverse exacerbate the impulse and intent to engage in irrational behaviors? Does it increase the impact of users experiencing irrational behaviors? What are the consequences of irrational behaviors in the metaverse? How to measure,study,and prevent these impacts?To address the research questions,this study conducted interviews with users of an emerging metaverse platform to obtain research data.The interview data was analyzed using grounded theory,and conceptual content was extracted from the interview data according to the principles of three-level coding.User cyber-aggression in the metaverse field was explained along two dimensions of causality,and a corresponding behavior model was developed.The model explains that factors influencing user cyber-aggression behavior in the metaverse field include immersion experience,social influence,and personal traits.Compared to traditional network scenarios,the user’s immersion experience on the platform can stimulate the perceived pleasure of the user when engaging in cyber-aggression behavior,positively encouraging the user’s cyberaggression intentions.At the same time,as the virtual environment and embodiment realism increase,users in the cognitive scene of embodiment identity will exhibit higher attack tendencies in environments with certain violent characteristics.The impact of cyber-aggression behavior in the metaverse field is more severe than in traditional contexts,with negative impacts on the user’s emotions and willingness to continue using the platform.In summary,this article explores user cyber-aggression behavior in the metaverse field from multiple perspectives such as "what it is," "whether it will happen," and "how to do it," and constructs a theoretical model of user cyber-aggression behavior in the metaverse field.The study also provides countermeasures for corresponding behavior governance in new technology scenarios.