Emotions in the metaverse court: proposed frameworks and methodologies

As courts evolve to include virtual justice spaces, new opportunities arise to expand our approaches to studying and understanding emotions in these settings. In this article, we explore how to research emotions in virtual courts, including in metaverse courts, where avatars may be embedded in an immersive virtual environment. We begin by laying out key concepts from performance and ritual theories and the sociology of virtual reality, media and gaming, and discuss their application in courtroom settings. We then introduce a comparative methodological framework that includes naturalistic observations and controlled experiments to study these concepts across different judicial environments. Emphasising the richness of digital data available in virtual settings, we highlight new opportunities for collecting and analysing data in and around emotions. We suggest such a framework can provide insights into how these new environments can reshape judicial practices and rituals, offering lessons for the future design and implementation of traditional, virtual and metaverse courtrooms.