The Metaverse, Immersive Virtual Reality and its Implications on Human Behavior

The metaverse is a synthetic environment in which users interact in various ways. The key feature is the user's immersion in the virtual world and the possibility to experience different forms of interaction. The shift into the virtual realm of social interactions in the metaverse introduces a very important complexity in the study of human behavior. Modern immersive virtual reality technologies represents sometimes exciting tools for addressing the complex problems of contemporary life, like telerehabilitation, distance and continuous learning, entertainment and social interactions. This new way of interacting with others, also due to the characteristics of the hardware used and the type of stimuli the user receives that isolate him or her from the real context, can lead to forms of deviance and even, sometimes, to crime.