Presence, Social Capital, Social Isolation in Virtual Environments: The Role of Extraversion in Shaping Relational Outcomes

Virtual environment communication has been increasingly discussed as a potential means of addressing social isolation, yet little is known about how different forms of presence become relational resources. This study examines how physical presence and social presence in virtual environments are associated with social isolation through virtual-environment bonding and bridging social capital, and whether these relationships differ by users' level of extraversion. Data were collected from 500 Korean adults with experience using ZEPETO and analyzed using CB-SEM and multi-group analysis. The results show that physical presence is positively associated with both bonding and bridging social capital, suggesting that perceived realism is associated with both forms of relational resources. Social presence is negatively associated with bonding social capital but positively associated with bridging social capital, indicating that the sense of being with others may be more closely associated with weak-tie expansion rather than close relational cohesion. Bonding social capital is positively associated with social isolation, whereas bridging social capital is not significantly associated with social isolation in the overall model. Multi-group analysis revealed that the positive association between bonding social capital and social isolation was significantly stronger among extraverted users. Bridging social capital was negatively associated with social isolation only in the extraversion group, although the between-group difference was not statistically significant at the 0.05 level. These findings suggest that the socio-psychological outcomes associated with VE-Comm vary not simply on the overall level of presence, but on the type of presence, the form of social capital reported, and users' personality traits.