This study differentiates the roles of telepresence and transportation, the two widely cited processes underpinning an immersive media viewing experience, in the context of virtual marketing. In Study 1, college students viewed a real estate property tour in virtual reality (VR; high immersion) or as a 360° video (low immersion) in a research lab. The tour was accompanied by a voiceover presenting descriptive information about the apartment (descriptive evidence) or a narrative‐based introduction (narrative evidence). We found the enhanced telepresence under the VR viewing condition negatively impacted users' memory of the property; this effect was particularly pronounced with the narrative voiceover. Study 2 replicated key findings from Study 1 in an online experiment with a larger and more diverse sample. We also found that narrative‐induced transportation strengthened attitudinal outcomes, and enhanced telepresence boosted this effect. Our studies disentangle the impacts of VR‐induced telepresence on cognitive processing from the effects of narrative‐induced transportation on persuasive outcomes. The highly immersive media experience combined with deep transportation into the narrative can strengthen viewers' positive attitude towards the overall experience but hinder their ability to remember the details of the content. The findings point to a medium‐message matching strategy to achieve marketing goals.

Misinformation carries both distorted facts and sophisticated emotional signals. Comparing to facts that could be labeled as true or false, we are more concerned about contaminative negative emotions transferring digitally among users. In this study, we explored an emotional contagion effect among misinformation discussion participants on Twitter. We analyzed the sentiment of 573 tweets in 192 discussion threads. Our result revealed that highly emotional tweets do not have a universal effect on the online discussions, but it affects those individuals with limited social and personal identity cues (i.e., being anonymous). We found that anonymous members of the online discussion are more susceptible to emotional contagions than those are not. We also suggest coping strategies that protect social media users' emotional well-being during the era COVID-19.

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This research explored how a virtual reality (VR) public service announcement (PSA) in a first-person perspective (vs non-VR PSA scripts: first-person perspective-taking, non-perspective-taking) impacted attitudes toward the PSA and attitudes toward people experiencing homelessness. Participants first reported their attitudes toward people experiencing homelessness. Seven days later, participants watched or read a PSA about the life of a person experiencing homelessness and reported their attitudes toward the people experiencing homelessness and the PSA. We explored how psychological processes (telepresence, empathy, reactance) related to persuasion. Results showed viewing or reading any of the PSAs led to more favorable attitudes toward the target group. The VR PSA was the most likely format to induce telepresence and empathy and the least likely to induce reactance. Attitudes toward the VR PSA were more positive than toward the script PSAs. Overall, our study provides insights into the effectiveness of VR and narrative formats for persuasion.

Misinformation carries both distorted facts and sophisticated emotional signals. Comparing to facts that could be labeled as true or false, we are more concerned about contaminative negative emotions transferring digital-ly among users. In this study, we explored an emotional contagion effect among misinformation discussion participants on Twitter. We analyzed the sentiment of 573 tweets in 192 discussion threads. Our result revealed that highly emotional tweets do not have a universal effect on the online discussions, but it affects those individuals with limited social and personal identity cues (i.e., being anonymous). We found that anonymous members of the online discussion are more susceptible to emotional contagions than those are not. We also suggest coping strategies that protect social media users’ emotional well-being during the era COVID-19.