Lee, E-J., Park, S., Lee, W., & Kim, H. S. (2024). Identity experiment in the metaverse: Making sense of Zepeto users’ avatar use. International Journal of Communication, 18, 3284-3291.
With the proliferation of online platforms that support avatar-based communication, the
notion of metaverse has drawn much public attention. Using a mixed-method approach,
the current work explores how users experiment with their avatars in Zepeto, a popular
metaverse service with millions of users globally. Based on in-depth interviews with South
Korean Zepeto users (N = 14), Study 1 examined how individuals construct their self-identity in the virtual world and found that sociocultural constraints of the real world still
shape the way they perform their virtual identities. Building upon the findings of Study 1,
Study 2 (N = 200) examined how users’ personality traits, self-esteem, and need for
popularity predict the multiplicity, malleability, and continuity of virtual identity using an
online survey. Results suggest that people create and maintain their virtual identities in
reflection of their self-views as well as in pursuit of unfulfilled needs.
In this study, which combines qualitative and quantitative research, I was responsible for conducting the interviews in Study 1.
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p.3290
Resonating with Turkle’s (1995) notion that the virtual space serves as a social laboratory for people to experiment with their self-identities, Zepeto users explore ways to express various facets of themselves. With Zepeto’s technological affordances that enable users to try out different physical features, free from real-life constraints, users seem to enjoy reinventing their identities via avatars.
p.3290-3291
Through the use of pseudonym and readily customizable cartoon images, users can create a persona in Zepeto as far from their offline personalities as they like. Many of the interviewees believe that Zepeto users disclose only 30–40% of their real selves. Departing from the earlier notion that identity switching in cyberspace can be a form of deception and frowned upon as a dishonest and manipulative behavior (Roberts & Parks, 1999), not only did most of the interviewees indicate their strong preference for anonymity but they also believed they could be more truthful in Zepeto than in the real world, where they are expected to present a compelling front and fulfill their social roles. Put differently, what interviewees call their real-world selves does not necessarily encapsulate their authentic selves but instead represents an actualized and performed self. In this sense, the real-world self is akin to the actual self that consists of the traits they normally express to others, rather than the true self comprised of the traits “they possess and would like to but are not usually able to express” (Bargh et al., 2002, p. 37). When in Zepeto, however, users feel much less inhibited by social norms or the gazes of others and are thus better able to show who they really are.
p.3292
Although Zepeto certainly enables users to experiment with their identities, about half of the interviewees mentioned that the metaverse is not completely disconnected from the dominant norms of the real world. Albeit being freed from their physical bodies, users nonetheless seek socially acceptable or favored appearances in virtual spaces (e.g., Martey & Consalvo, 2011; Mills, 2018), suggesting that a social gaze still operates in the metaverse
SOJEONG PARK 