In the metaverse, users will actively engage with 3D content using extended reality (XR). Such XR platforms can stimulate a revolution in health communication, moving from information-based to experience-based content. We outline three major application domains and describe how the XR affordances (presence, agency and embodiment) can improve healthy behaviour by targeting the users’ threat and coping appraisal. We discuss how health communication via XR can help to address long-standing health challenges.

The predicted arrival of the metaverse has given rise to heated public debate. Critics of the metaverse argue that companies’ economic self-interest is primarily responsible for the hype surrounding the metaverse and that such a platform would be difficult to regulate. Some critics argue that the metaverse poses a ‘terrifying danger to humanity’¹, potentially leading to a surge in harassment and manipulation². However, others contend that the metaverse could ‘unleash amazing creativity and open up new frontiers and horizons’³, providing a platform for new tools to learn, socialise and collaborate in cyberspace.

source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-022-00682-x