Looking at and feeling the Metaverse: How spatial priming influences trust in collaborative virtual environments through situated cognition

In the Metaverse era, immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) are reshaping collaborations through engaging but complex collaborative virtual environments (CVEs). For this reason, it is essential to identify the key attributes that encourage individuals to use CVEs in such alliances. Grounded in situated cognition theory, this study investigates the key attributes of CVEs and uses trust as a critical mediator to determine how they jointly influence usage intention. First, we identified potential CVE features through a literature review, after which we refined them via a qualitative study to identify those most relevant to usage intention. Building on these insights, we developed a context-specific model that we tested through a sequential quantitative study. Our results reveal a significant interaction between spatial openness and avatar appearance formality in shaping collaboration intention. Importantly, results show that enclosed spaces, especially when paired with formal avatar appearances, enhance perceptions of ability and integrity trust, which in turn positively affect collaboration intention. By clarifying how contextual features shape trust in virtual settings, this study not only explains the underlying mechanisms but also provides practical guidance for designing CVEs through deliberate spatial-avatar configurations.