Avatars' Phygital Social Presence in the Metaverse: An Engaged Theory Perspective

While prior authors have explored the notions of human and/or automated social presence, these concepts have been predominantly assessed either individually or as mutually exclusive theoretical entities. However, we draw on engaged theory to develop the hybrid concept of phygital social presence that comprises aspects of both the human and automated social presence of metaverse avatars. We define phygital social presence as the degree to which a metaverse avatar instils the feeling in other users that they are in the company of a social entity, as elicited by the avatar's (a) human social presence (i.e., the actions taken by its human user, in line with engaged theory's “ways of acting”), and (b) automated social presence (i.e., the avatar's embodiment or its appearance, look, design, and the character that these emit, in line with engaged theory's “ways of being”). We next propose a conceptual framework and a set of propositions, which suggest that metaverse avatars' (a) human social presence primarily impacts metaverse users' positive or negative behavioral engagement in the metaverse, and (b) automated social presence chiefly influences users' positive or negative cognitive and emotional engagement. Moreover, an avatar's ways of relating, as also informed by engaged theory, primarily impact users' positive or negative social engagement.