The Problem of Digital Dualism in Social Virtual Reality Research: Toward a Hybrid Culture, Space, and Body

The problem of digital dualism represents a bias that conceptualizes physical and virtual realities as separate entities, thereby influencing the methodological approaches employed in research on these domains. Digital dualism has been evident since the earliest studies of cyberspace. This position paper presents how this bias is inadvertently reproduced in research on social virtual reality (VR), focusing on issues such as the omission of the influence of physical environments, the neglect of users' geographical, ethnic, and socio-cultural situatedness, the disproportionate reliance on laboratory studies over field research, and in the conceptualization of the user-avatar relationship. Addressing these research gaps, rooted in digital dualism, is essential for advancing future investigations in social VR.