Regulatory frameworks and digital identity in the metaverse: an exploratory virtual reality experiment on trust, privacy, and openness

Introduction: The rapid expansion of immersive metaverse platforms raises pressing questions about how governance and digital identity should be designed to foster trust, protect privacy, and support inclusive participation. Empirical evidence on how different governance and identity regimes are experienced in situ through virtual reality interfaces remains limited.Methods: We conducted an exploratory VR experiment with 101 participants using a 2 × 2 design. The study contrasted two stylised governance configurations–a council-regulated metaverse and a comparatively unregulated “wild-west” environment–and two identity conditions: identity-disclosure cues versus anonymous interaction. Outcomes included perceived trust and privacy, openness to sustainability-related content, spatial presence, and simulator sickness.Results: Council-regulated environments significantly increased perceived trust and privacy and substantially reduced simulator sickness compared to wild-west conditions. Identity-disclosure cues did not affect trust or openness but were associated with higher spatial presence. Correlational analyses further indicated that trust and privacy perceptions were strongly linked to openness and comfort in VR.Discussion: The findings suggest that governance cues experienced within immersive environments can meaningfully shape user experience, and that proportionate, context-sensitive identity arrangements may be preferable to blanket real-name policies. These results inform ongoing debates on the design of open, human-centric virtual worlds and provide empirical insights relevant for platform governance and policy development.