ABSTRACT

How to increase public engagement in environmental issues is a central question in environmental communication and environmental psychology literatures. Psychological distance (PD) is one potential barrier to public engagement. PD describes the perceptual distance between a person’s experience and an external target. Immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR) have the potential to shrink PD. Yet, we know little about how people perceive and react to an environmental VR experience or about the role that PD plays in these reactions. To address this gap, we use interviews and focus groups to examine how people react to a VR experience about ocean acidification. We find that PD is prevalent in the reactions of VR users, especially first-time users, and that 62% of participants described feeling psychologically close to ocean acidification.

摘要

如何增加公众对环境问题的参与是环境传播和环境心理学文献中的一个核心问题。心理距离 (PD) 是公众参与的潜在障碍之一。PD 描述了一个人的经验与外部目标之间的感知距离。虚拟现实 (VR) 等沉浸式技术有可能缩小 PD。然而，我们对人们如何感知环境 VR 体验并做出反应，或 PD 在这些反应中所起的作用知之甚少。为了弥补这一差距，我们通过访谈和焦点小组来研究人们对有关海洋酸化的 VR 体验的反应。我们发现 PD 在 VR 用户的反应中很普遍，尤其是第一次使用的用户，62% 的参与者描述了心理上接近海洋酸化的感觉。