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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Virtual Real.
Sec. Virtual Reality and Human Behaviour
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frvir.2024.1499835
This article is part of the Research Topic A Metaverse for the Good: Design, Application and Understanding View all 9 articles

Embodied Time Travel in VR: From Witnessing Climate Change to Action for Prevention

Provisionally accepted
YUKE Pi YUKE Pi 1Xueni Pan Xueni Pan 1Mel Slater Mel Slater 2*Justyna Świdrak Justyna Świdrak 3,4
  • 1 Goldsmiths University of London, London, United Kingdom
  • 2 University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
  • 3 August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
  • 4 Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Masovian, Poland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study explores the impact of embodied experiences in Virtual Reality (VR) on individuals' attitudes and behavior towards climate change. A total of 41 participants were divided into two groups: an embodied group that interacted with a virtual environment through full-body avatars, and a non-embodied group that observed the scenarios from an invisible observer's point of view. The VR experience simulated the progressive consequences of climate change across three generations within a family, aiming to make the abstract and relatively distant concept of climate change a tangible and personal issue. The final scene presented an optimistic scenario of a future where humans had successfully combated climate change through collective action. The evidence suggests that there is an effect of the scenario on the carbon footprint response, even 6 weeks after the VR exposure, irrespective of condition. Additionally, increases were found in participants' perceived influence on climate action and engagement in pro-environmental behaviors, with the embodied group showing a more pronounced response in the short term. These findings suggest that immersive VR experiences that incorporate virtual embodiment can be an effective tool in enhancing awareness and motivating pro-environmental behavior by providing a powerful and personal perspective on the impacts of climate change.

    Keywords: Climate Change, virtual reality, embodiment, environmental attitudes, Time travel

    Received: 21 Sep 2024; Accepted: 05 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Pi, Pan, Slater and Świdrak. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mel Slater, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, 08007, Catalonia, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.