Abstract
Researchers have associated a dark side with metaverse adoption, suggesting that metaverse use may hurt the natural environment, society, and users’ health. This study proposes a framework to measure the users’ perceptions about the negative impacts of the metaverse on the environment, society, and users’ health. The study also examined the effect of negative perceptions on metaverse adoption intention for three distinct segments of consumers, i.e., general consumers, technology enthusiasts, and socio-environmentally conscious consumers. Three studies were conducted. Study 1 was aimed at developing scales to measure the perceived negative impact of metaverse use on the environment (PIME), society (PIMS), and users’ health (PIMH). Study 2 examined the role of PIME, PIMS, and PIMH in the consumers’ metaverse adoption. Study 3 revalidated the proposed model on two segments of technology enthusiasts and socio-environmentally conscious consumers separately. PIMH was observed to be crucial for the metaverse adoption by general consumers and socio-environmentally conscious consumers. PIMS was observed to be a significant predictor of the metaverse adoption by socio-environmentally conscious consumers. The three study constructs were not observed to be significant predictors of metaverse adoption by technology enthusiasts.
