Does 360-degree Video Enhance Engagement with Global Warming?: The Mediating Role of Spatial Presence and Emotions

Oh, Jeeyun; Jin, Eunjoo; Sudarshan, Sabitha; Nah, Soya; Yu, Na

doi:10.1080/17524032.2021.1891945

Cited by 12 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 69 publications

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“…Therefore, immersive VR and extended reality have been repeatedly proposed as suitable tools with which to promote PEB by making the threat of climate change more proximal and tangible (Breves and Heber, 2020;Breves and Schramm, 2021;Fauville et al, 2020;Markowitz and Bailenson, 2021), e.g., by providing users with the experience of witnessing the icebergs melting (Petersen et al, 2020), ocean acidification (Fauville et al, 2021;Markowitz et al, 2018;Anna C. M. Queiroz et al, 2023;Raja and Carrico, 2021), coral reef bleaching (Nim et al, 2016) or by visualizing invisible GHG emissions (Heemsbergen et al, 2022). This way, VR can increase climate change awareness (Oh et al, 2021) and knowledge (Greussing, 2020;Markowitz et al, 2018;Petersen et al, 2020;Stenberdt and Makransky, 2023) or connection with nature (Ahn et al, 2016;Oh et al, 2021).…”

Section: Environmental Communication In Virtual Realitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Shifting from information- to experience-based climate change communication increases pro-environmental behavior

Plechatá

Hielkema

Merkl

et al. 2023

Preprint

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To reach necessary greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets, behavioral change is necessary at the consumer level. Nevertheless, behavioral interventions have only a limited impact on habitual behaviors such as beef consumption, which significantly contributes to the GHGs released. Immersive virtual reality (VR) in the metaverse can transform the current information-based environmental communication into more experience-based communication. To study how such a shift might change its effectiveness, we randomly assigned N = 167 participants to a VR experience (experiencing and influencing climate change based on food choices) or a VR information condition (receiving the same information from a virtual human). The VR experience led to higher intentions to reduce meat consumption and more pro-environmental behavior in VR and real life than the information condition. Mediation analyses confirm that experiential VR environmental communication can increase people’s efficacy beliefs, which increase their intentions and, consequently, lead to a reduction in beef consumption.

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