The metaverse is the next-generation Internet (Web3) that facilitates social connections and collaborations in a virtual world environment. Given the potential of the metaverse to provide more satisfying and effective means of remote collaborations, exploring the possibility of leveraging the metaverse for these endeavors is warranted. Therefore, an important question to address is whether greater engagement occurs when tasks are completed collaboratively versus individually in the metaverse. We address this question by drawing on flow and transportation theories to hypothesize the effect of carrying out a creative task in the metaverse collaboratively versus alone on one's cognitive absorption, a contextually relevant proxy for the flow experience. In the context of the metaverse, cognitive absorption refers to the heightened enjoyment experienced when one is immersed and “transported” into the metaverse while maintaining a sense of curiosity and control as well as perceiving a distorted sense of time. We conducted a laboratory experiment to test our research hypotheses. The results indicate that collaborations in the metaverse enhance cognitive absorption. Cognitive absorption, in turn, increases outcome satisfaction and intention to use the metaverse. The findings provide theoretical contributions by enhancing the nomological network of cognitive absorption as well as explaining how computer-mediated collaborations can facilitate the virtual transportation of users into the metaverse. The findings also offer insights and guidance for enhancing cognitive absorption and outcome satisfaction in the metaverse as well as the intention to use the metaverse.

中文翻译：

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共流或孤军奋战：元宇宙中协作的影响


元宇宙是下一代互联网 （Web3），可在虚拟世界环境中促进社交联系和协作。鉴于元宇宙有可能提供更令人满意和有效的远程协作方式，探索利用元宇宙进行这些努力的可能性是有道理的。因此，一个需要解决的重要问题是，在元宇宙中协作完成任务而不是单独完成任务时，是否会产生更大的参与度。我们通过利用流动和运输理论来解决这个问题，假设在元宇宙中协作执行创造性任务与单独执行创造性任务对一个人的认知吸收的影响，这是心流体验的上下文相关代理。在元宇宙的背景下，认知吸收是指当一个人沉浸在元宇宙中并 “传送 ”到元宇宙中，同时保持好奇心和控制感，以及感知到扭曲的时间感时，所体验到的高度享受。我们进行了一项实验室实验来检验我们的研究假设。结果表明，元宇宙中的合作增强了认知吸收。反过来，认知吸收会增加结果满意度和使用元宇宙的意愿。这些发现通过增强认知吸收的名词网络以及解释计算机介导的协作如何促进用户进入元宇宙的虚拟运输，提供了理论贡献。这些发现还为提高元宇宙中的认知吸收和结果满意度以及使用元宇宙的意图提供了见解和指导。