2020
By Marijn Meijers, Anke Wonneberger, Heather Torfadottir, and Ewa Maslowska
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges of our time. Once people experience the consequences of climate change (e.g., a forest fire or a flood), they are more likely to perceive climate change as an actual threat and are, therefore, more likely to act in a pro-environmental manner. We posit that Virtual Reality (VR) offers an innovative manner to allow people to experience the consequences of climate change (e.g., experiencing a forest fire). In this project, we investigate how both cognitive and emotional responses can be triggered by such a VR experience, and how this subsequently affects behavioral intentions and actual behavior.
This project is reported in the following publication: Meijers, M. H., Torfadóttir, R. H., Wonneberger, A., & Maslowska, E. (2023). Experiencing climate change virtually: The effects of virtual reality on climate change related cognitions, emotions, and behavior. Environmental Communication, 17(6), 581-601. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2023.2229043