Bridging psychological distance: The impact of immersive media on distant and proximal environmental issues

Modelling associations between mortality salience, environmental concerns, and climate change risk perception in the context of the pandemic

The pandemic and climate change are mortality salience triggers. Environmental issues, attitudes, and climate change risk perceptions were hypothesised to impact how individuals perceived the threat of COVID-19 and climate change during the pandemic. The study explored: 1.) the associations between seeing a link between COVID-19 and climate change and environmental concerns; 2.) the associations between mortality salience and environmental concerns; 3.) the associations between feeling less worried during the pandemic and environmental concerns; and 4.) what these associations tell us about the relationship between mortality salience, the perceived link between COVID-19 and climate change, and feeling less worried during the pandemic. A sample of 665 respondents was achieved from an online survey in 2021. The results of the multiple regression analysis and structural equation modelling showed that environmental issues, attitudes and perceptions, time spent in nature, and climate change risk perception played a role in the extent to which individuals perceived COVID-19 as an indicator of climate change threats, whether mortality salience was made conscious, and whether there was distancing of concern about climate change and social issues during the pandemic. The study makes an important contribution to understanding psychological processes that are activated during disasters that trigger mortality salience, and how this is impacted by the human-nature nexus, and climate change risk perception.

Exploring perceived learning effectiveness in virtual reality health communication through the lens of construal level theory

BACKGROUND

Virtual reality is increasingly being used for health communication. This study aimed to propose and test an integrated model of the determinants of perceived learning effectiveness in virtual reality (VR) within health communication. It proposes that psychological distance negatively affects immersion, flow, and presence, positively affecting perceived learning effectiveness.

METHODS

The Fuzzy Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory Method (F-DEMATEL) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used to test the proposed model. Data for the F-DEMATEL study were collected from 20 participants, whereas data for the SEM study were collected from 1104 participants, with 775 included in the final analysis.

RESULTS

The results of the F-DEMATEL study revealed that the three dimensions of psychological distance, emotional distance, spatial distance, and social distance are causal factors. In contrast, temporal, technical, and hypothetical distance are effect factors. The SEM results confirmed the negative effects of psychological distance on flow and presence and the positive effects of immersion and presence on perceived learning effectiveness. In addition, the mediating role of presence was confirmed.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that interrelationships among the factors can enhance the perceived learning effectiveness of health communication from VR. The crucial role of ensuring low psychological distance and high engagement in VR communication is also confirmed, providing crucial implications for VR communication practitioners.

Studying environmental and economic considerations on tourism activities in achieving sustainable development goals: implications for sustainability

The study aims to extend the understanding of environmental and economic considerations on tourism activities in achieving sustainable development goals. The motivation of the study is to provide the empirical inference of variables based on study topicality and the implications to achieve SDG 8 and SDG 9 specifically. The study used panel data from 2000 to 2021 to check for cross-sectional dependency and performed various panel unit root tests to verify the unit root properties of the variables. With the help of Pedroni and Kao's statistical results, we confirm variables are integrated. The results from OLS modified and dynamic demonstrate the correlation between transformation, measured by patents and publications, and higher economic performance and lower environmental hazard, emphasizing the role of transformation. The results also show that tourism arrivals have a significant positive effect on reducing pollution hazards and increasing economic performance, which shows progress toward sustainable development. Based on the study, it was determined that the contribution of asylum seekers did not positively impact the host countries' economic conditions or environmental improvement initiatives. It was found that higher levels of education play a crucial role in promoting sustainable development through economic growth and mitigating environmental risks. To achieve sustainable development in the G20 economies, promoting tourism, undertaking transformational measures, and enhancing higher education are recommended. These results have significant implications for policymakers, firms, and an agenda of the United Nations sustainable development program.

Expanding Nature's storytelling: extended reality and debiasing strategies for an eco-agency

Communication in sustainability and environmental sciences is primed to be substantially changed with extended reality technology, as the emergent Metaverse gives momentum to building an urgent pro-environmental mindset. Our work focuses on immersive econarratives, supported by virtual and augmented realities, and their potential to favor an improved relationship with the environment. Considering social aggregation dynamics and cognitive bias, this article intends to (1) make the case for a new environmental narrative; (2) position extended reality as privileged settings to sustain this narrative; and (3) suggest that this storytelling should be informed by Nature's empirical evidence, i.e., ecosystem data. We see this as a chance to think this Metaverse with an embedded environmental consciousness, informed by behavior-change research.

Relating biogas technology and environmental impact assessment: a roadmap towards clean energy for environmental sustainability

Atmosphere contamination and fast weather change have compelled scientists and entrepreneurs to seek eco-friendly solutions for saving the earth. Increasing energy consumption depletes limited natural resources and harms the climate and ecology. In this regard, biogas technology contributes in two ways: satisfying energy needs and saving plants. Pakistan is a farming nation with enormous biogas-based energy generating potential. The primary objectives of this study are to identify the most significant barriers to farmers' investment in biogas technology. Non-probability sampling (purposive sampling) was utilized to establish the sample size. Ninety-seven investors and farmers were systematically sampled in biogas technology engaged in this survey. The planned questionnaire was practiced to obtain key facts via online interviews. The partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to evaluate designated hypotheses. The current research concludes that entire autonomous variables are substantial and interrelated with investment in biogas machinery, dropping energy disasters, and accomplishing environmental, financial, and maintenance government support objectives. The results also revealed that electronic and social media play a moderating influence. This conceptual model is considerably and positively affected by the chosen factors and their moderation. This study concludes that the primary tools for attracting farmers and investors in biogas technology are proper biogas technology awareness with relevant experts, financial and maintenance government responsibility, user efficiency and environmental concern of biogas plants, and the role of electronic and social media. The results also advised that the government should implement an incentive and maintenance policy to entice new farmers and investors in Pakistan to build biogas technology. Finally, the study's limitations and recommendations for additional studies are highlighted.

Experiencing herd immunity in virtual reality increases COVID-19 vaccination intention: Evidence from a large-scale field intervention study

This study investigates the impact of an immersive virtual reality (VR) simulation of herd immunity on vaccination intentions and its potential underlying mechanisms. In this preregistered field study, N = 654 participants were randomly assigned to one of the three VR conditions: (1) Gamified Herd Immunity; (2) Gamified Herd Immunity + Empathy (with additional narrative elements); (3) Control (gamified with no vaccination-related content). In the Gamified Herd Immunity simulation, participants embodied a vulnerable person and navigated a wedding venue trying to avoid getting infected. A total of 455 participants with below maximum intentions to take a novel vaccine and without severe cybersickness were analyzed. The Gamified Herd Immunity + Empathy and the Gamified Herd Immunity conditions increased vaccination intentions by 6.68 and 7.06 points on a 0-100 scale, respectively, compared to 1.91 for the Control condition. The Gamified Herd Immunity + Empathy condition enhanced empathy significantly more than the Gamified Herd Immunity condition but did not result in higher vaccination intentions. Experienced presence was related to the change in vaccination intentions. The results suggest that VR vaccination communication can effectively increase vaccination intentions; the effect is not solely due to the technological novelty and does not depend on empathy.

The Effects of Sensory Cues on Immersive Experiences for Fostering Technology-Assisted Sustainable Behavior: A Systematic Review

Games are consistently acknowledged as a powerful approach that can significantly impact people’s behavior towards living in a sustainable way. Sensory cues are regarded as influential factors in facilitating immersive experiences in gamified applications to foster sustainable behavior. As our perception of an environment is influenced not only by what we can see but also by additional sensory input such as sound and touch, additional sensory information can be part of the participant’s experience. This study systematically scrutinized game-based applications containing sensory cues to interpret current technology-assisted sustainable behavior development. This study provides a review of the impact of the sensory signals offered by video games, virtual reality, and augmented reality on pro-environmental behavioral intention. This research found that human senses can change the perception of immersion in multiple ways: visual (dimensions, angles, color), auditory (music, dialogue), and haptic, and these can affect sustainable behavior. Thus, we argue that multiple sensory modalities provide more opportunities to influence users to act sustainably. Based on the results, the theoretical contribution of this paper emphasizes the level of immersion, which is closely related to various sensory perceptions, and explains the correlation between them. In terms of industrial applications, it provides game designers, developers of VR and AR applications, and planners of sustainable education guidelines for the adoption of immersive scenarios.

A randomized trial testing the effectiveness of virtual reality as a tool for pro-environmental dietary change

This study investigates the impact of an efficacy-focused virtual reality (VR) intervention designed according to instructional design principles on eating behavior. In the preregistered intervention study, psychology students were randomly assigned to nine seminar blocks. Employing parallel design, they were allocated to either a VR intervention to experience the environmental impact of food behavior (1) and alter the future by revising food choices (2) or to a passive control condition. The data from 123 participants (78% female, mean age 25.03, SD = 6.4) were analyzed to investigate the effect of the VR intervention on dietary footprint measured from 1 week before to 1 week after the intervention. The VR intervention decreased individual dietary footprints (d = 0.4) significantly more than the control condition. Similarly, the VR condition increased response efficacy and knowledge to a larger extent compared to the control. For knowledge, the effect persisted for 1 week. The VR intervention had no impact on intentions, self-efficacy, or psychological distance. Additional manipulation of normative feedback enhanced self-efficacy; however, manipulation of geographical framing did not influence psychological distance. This research received no financial support from any funding agency and was registered on 15/09/2021 at Open Science Foundation with the number 10.17605/OSF.IO/2AXF3.

Human Exceptionalist Thinking about Climate Change

Although global climate change poses a real and looming threat to both human societies and the natural world, large gaps in understanding exist between the general public and the scientific community. One factor contributing to such gaps could be the use of intuitive thinking to understand complex phenomena. In two studies, we explore climate change understanding and engagement through the lens of an intuitive pattern of thinking, human exceptionalism, which refers to the tendency to infer that humans are exceptional to, and separable from, the rest of the natural world. In both studies, undergraduates thought about global climate change in human exceptionalist ways that were orthogonal to accuracy—for example, they correctly think that humans uniquely contribute to climate change compared to other organisms, but incorrectly think that humans will be uniquely immune to the effects of global climate change. Moreover, human exceptionalist thinking has real-world consequences; it was negatively associated with eco-friendly attitudes and behaviors, and negatively predicted individuals’ attribution of damage from recent hurricanes (i.e., hurricanes Michael and Florence) to global climate change. Finally, we demonstrated that increasing the salience of connections between humans and global climate change reduced human exceptionalism. Findings suggest that intuitive thinking in general, and human exceptionalism in particular, make important contributions to how we understand and reason about global climate change, and may be promising targets for interventions aimed at increasing pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors.

Different Educational Interventions on Individual Cognition of Garbage Classification Based on EEG Monitoring

Improvement in an individuals’ cognition is the key to promote garbage classification. This study takes university students as the research subjects, through three educational interventions, including the self-learning, heuristic learning, and interactive learning ways, to seek the most effective intervention based upon event-related potentials (ERPs) that is beneficial to enhance cognition of garbage classification. The results show that the experimental subjects induced P300 and LPP components, representing attentional changes and cognitive conflicts in classification judgments. There are differences in the amplitudes and peak latency of the two components corresponding to different interventions, indicating that the three educational interventions are able to improve the individual’s cognition level of garbage classification within a certain period of time. The interactive-learning intervention triggers the largest amplitudes of P300 and LPP, as well as the smallest peak latency, indicating its effect is the best. Such results provide insight into the design for an appropriate strategy in garbage classification education. The study also shows that an EEG signal can be used as the endogenous neural indicator to measure the performance of garbage classification under different educational interventions.

«Let’s Go Deep into the Game to Save Our Planet!» How an Immersive and Educational Video Game Reduces Psychological Distance and Raises Awareness

Climate change appears to be the ecological issue which benefits from the most attention in the literature, compared to equally alarming situations such as plastic pollution. In fact, waste management issues took a new step with the recent discovery of microplastics in human blood for the first time, as it used to be a hypothesis. Instead of separating those questions, some researchers tend to consider that a link exists between the effects of global warming and plastic degradation in the ocean. Research focusing on the construal-level theory and the psychological distance explain the lack of public interest in the environmental crisis. However, recent studies highlight the empirical support of the psychological distance instead of the CLT, especially regarding climate change, but a few studies explore the psychological distance related to plastic pollution. With that in mind, any means to reduce the perceived psychological distance regarding environmental issues such as plastic pollution might increase their sensitivity and motivation to act. Moreover, the change of habit could be induced by a new event that would disrupt someone’s daily life according to the habit discontinuity hypothesis, and the use of immersive media such as video games might be the solution. Given numerous possibilities of creation with the scenarios, gameplay, public of interest and gaming contexts, video games also influence motivation, engagement and learning ability. We can also find specific components and mechanisms from game design in media that do not focus on entertainment first but on pedagogical purpose: serious games. Thus, this study investigates how immersive media might reduce specific psychological distance dimensions and trigger emotions using an educational video game on plastic pollution, which might play a major role in changing ones’ daily habits. The research uses a qualitative method centered on semi-structured individual interviews and the experimentation of a video game named Plasticity. Results support all the propositions and show that different types of immersion might reduce each dimension of the psychological distance, which is a first, reinforcing environmental awareness and new intentions of pro-environmental behavior. Other areas of discussion are furthered explored.

Citizen Environmental Behavior From the Perspective of Psychological Distance Based on a Visual Analysis of Bibliometrics and Scientific Knowledge Mapping

Global warming and other climate issues seriously threaten global sustainable development. As citizen environmental behavior can have a positive impact on the environment, it is of great theoretical significance and practical reference value to study the impact of psychological distance theory on citizen environmental behavior. This study obtained 2,633 related studies from 1980 to 2020 from the Web of Science as research objects, and used CiteSpace, VOSviewer, Netdraw, and other software programs to perform a bibliometric analysis, which can show the complex relationship implied in the citation, intuitively grasp the development context and hot frontier in this field, and help scholars better study citizen environmental behavior. The results and conclusions are as follows. (1) The related research covered three periods: infancy, growth, and outbreak. (2) Chronologically, the relevant research evolved from building models to analyze the impact of environmental enrichment on human environmental behavior, to studying the motivation behind citizen environmental behavior, and finally to paying attention to sustainable development. (3) A cluster analysis of high-frequency keywords identified three research hotspots: “drivers of psychological distance of environmental change perception on citizen environmental behavior,” “impact of social distance on adolescents’ behavior,” and “construal level theory and citizen green behavior.” Based on these findings, possible future research directions were identified, including changing from a single theory to a combination of multiple theories to comprehensively study citizen environmental protection behavior; analyzing the motivation of citizen environmental behavior and summarizing the general motivation of environmental behavior according to its internal relationship; and determining how to narrow the global psychological distance, strengthen the awareness of the community of human destiny, and explore the establishment of an efficient global climate cooperation mechanism.

Hotel Guests' Psychological Distance of Climate Change and Environment-Friendly Behavior Intention

Climate change is certainly a global problem that negatively affects all nations, and thus all humans, on the globe. Nevertheless, little is known about people's perceptions of climate change and its effects on people's attitudinal and behavioral responses to climate change. The present study successfully addressed how hotel guests' environment-friendly behavior intention is formed through their self-perception as a member of the global community and their psychological distance of climate change. An online survey was used to collect quantitative data from hotel guests to verify the hypotheses. Our test results supported all the hypotheses in our conceptual model. Consequently, the findings of this study satisfactorily explained how hotel guests form their intention to engage in environment-friendly behaviors while they are staying at hotels.

Beliefs about Human-Nature Relationships and Implications for Investment and Stewardship Surrounding Land-Water System Conservation

When engaging stakeholders in environmental conservation, it is critical to understand not only their group-level needs, but also the individually held beliefs that contribute to each person’s decisions to endorse or reject policies. To this end, we examined the extent to which people conceptualize the interconnected relationship between humans and nature in the context of a hypothetical urban waterway, and the implications thereof for environmental investment and stewardship. We also explored how these beliefs varied based on describing the waterway as having either local or global impacts, and as originating either naturally or through artificial processes. Three hundred and seventy-nine adults from the United States read vignettes about a polluted urban waterway and thereafter reported their investment in river clean-up, their stewardship of the river, and their beliefs surrounding human-nature relationships. Results revealed a common belief pattern whereby humans were believed to impact the urban river disproportionately more than the river impacts humans, suggesting that lay adults often weigh the impacts of humans on the natural world disproportionally. Critically, this disproportionate pattern of thinking inversely predicted investment of time and money in river clean-up. Results also revealed a potential solution to this psychological bias: highlighting local benefits of the waterway decreased the asymmetry of the human-nature relationship. We discuss the psychological factors contributing to this cognitive bias, and the implications of these findings on stakeholder engagement.

Co-created Future Scenarios as a Tool to Communicate Sustainable Development in Coastal Communities in Palawan, Philippines

Scenarios can be used to communicate potential future changes and engage and connect different audiences in exploring sustainable solutions. Communicating scenarios using creative visualisation, co-creation and a focus on local contexts are especially promising. This research is conducted on the island of Palawan in the Philippines as part of the GCRF Blue Communities project. With a quasi-experimental design, we investigate the psychological and emotional effects of the engagement with future scenarios as a tool for communicating sustainability. Together with local stakeholders and community members, three distinct, locally relevant scenario narratives (Business as Usual, Best Case, and Worst Case) have been co-created. Subsequently, a sample of N = 109 local high school students was asked to creatively engage with these scenario narratives. Intentions to engage in sustainable behaviour, perceived behavioural control, ascription of responsibility, consideration of future consequences, six basic emotions and connectedness to place were assessed before and after the activity via paper-pencil administrated questionnaires. A mixed-model analysis showed significant increases in intentions to engage in sustainable behaviour, however, this increase disappeared when consideration of future consequences was added as a covariate, suggesting a mediating effect. The level of consideration of future consequences also increased significantly after engaging with any of the future scenarios, which questions the common interpretation of consideration of future consequences as a trait variable. Perceived behavioural control significantly increased following the engagement with each of the scenarios whereas ascription of responsibility and connectedness to place did not show any changes. Overall, the two most emotion-evoking scenarios, Best Case Scenario and Worst Case Scenario, turn out as superior over the Business as Usual Scenario, which points to the relevance of emotional framing for effective messaging in our sample. This is the first systematic, quantitative assessment of the effects of future scenarios as a communication tool.

Public psychological distance and spatial distribution characteristics during the COVID-19 pandemic: a Chinese context

The COVID-19 pandemic is a public health emergency, which continues to have a significant impact on the functioning of society and the public’s daily life. From the perspective of psychological distance (PD), this study used descriptive, differential, and spatial autocorrelation analysis methods to explore the cognitive distance, emotional distance, expected distance and behavioral distance of the Chinese public in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of 4042 valid sample data found that: (1) The event emotional distance and subject emotional distance were both furthest from the event and subject psychological distance dimensions, and anger about the event was the strongest. (2) The government was the most appealing subject in the process of pandemic prevention and control, but at the same time, the public’s sense of closeness to the government was also lower than that of the other three subjects, e.g., medical institutions. (3) Different pandemic regions showed significant differences in PD. Mean scores of PD in each risk region were as follows: High-risk regions > medium-risk regions > low-risk regions. (4) From a global perspective, no spatial autocorrelation was found in PD. However, from a local perspective, high-value regions (provinces with distant PD) are mainly concentrated in the southern regions (Guizhou, Guangxi, Hainan, Jiangxi), and low-value regions (provinces with close PD) are mainly concentrated in North China (Shanxi, Hebei, Beijing). Combined with the relevant conclusions, this paper put forward policy recommendations.

Using Virtual Reality in Sea Level Rise Planning and Community Engagement—An Overview

As coastal communities around the globe contend with the impacts of climate change including coastal hazards such as sea level rise and more frequent coastal storms, educating stakeholders and the general public has become essential in order to adapt to and mitigate these risks. Communicating SLR and other coastal risks is not a simple task. First, SLR is a phenomenon that is abstract as it is physically distant from many people; second, the rise of the sea is a slow and temporally distant process which makes this issue psychologically distant from our everyday life. Virtual reality (VR) simulations may offer a way to overcome some of these challenges, enabling users to learn key principles related to climate change and coastal risks in an immersive, interactive, and safe learning environment. This article first presents the literature on environmental issues communication and engagement; second, it introduces VR technology evolution and expands the discussion on VR application for environmental literacy. We then provide an account of how three coastal communities have used VR experiences developed by multidisciplinary teams—including residents—to support communication and community outreach focused on SLR and discuss their implications.