Searching for the Metaverse: Neuroscience of Physical and Digital Communities

What distinguishes real-world communities from their online counterparts? Social and cognitive neuroscience research on social networks and collective intentionality is used in this article to answer the question. Physical communities are born in places. Places engage 'we-mode' neurobiological and cognitive processes such as behavioral synchrony, shared attention, deliberate attunement, and interbrain synchronization, which create coherent social networks of very different individuals supported by a 'wisdom of crowd.' Digital technologies remove physical boundaries, giving people more freedom to choose their activities and groups. At the same time, however, the lack of physical co-presence significantly reduces the possibility of activating we-mode cognitive processes and social motivation. Because of this, unlike physical communities that allow interaction among people from varied origins and histories, digital communities are typically composed of people who share the same interests and knowledge (communities of practice). This new situation disrupts the 'wisdom of crowd,' making communities more radical and less accurate (polarization), allowing influential users to wield disproportionate influence over group beliefs, and producing inequalities in the distribution of social capital. A new emergent technology—the Metaverse—has the potential to reverse this trend. Several studies reveal that virtual and augmented reality—the major technologies underlying the Metaverse—can engage the same neurobiological and cognitive we-mode processes as real-world environments. If current technological flaws are addressed, it might encourage more meaningful and constructive interactions in online communities.

Giuseppe Riva, Brenda K Wiederhold, Fabrizia Mantovani, Luciano De Crescenzo