Eliciting pro-environmental behavior with immersive technology: The roles of awe, empathy with nature, and perceived consumer effectiveness

Pro-environmental behavior (PEB) is key to the protection and preservation of our environment. Our study investigates how the use of immersive technologies can be leveraged to effectively elicit such behaviors. We examined two design factors that can be incorporated in environmental messages delivered by immersive technologies, namely, 360° control and informational prompts; and how these can lead to individuals behaving pro-environmentally. Specifically, we investigate how these two factors evoke awe and empathy with nature, which we conceptualize as two self-transcendent responses – and how these subsequently drive PEB. Our study considers the attitude-behavior gap that has received much attention in prior literature, and therefore also examines the role of perceived consumer effectiveness (PCE, i.e., the belief that an individual's action makes a difference) in the aforementioned relationships. A lab experiment approach was adopted using an immersive simulation of a degraded mountain environment, where we manipulated the two design factors to test our hypotheses. The findings of our study indicate that informational prompts can elicit empathy with nature, while 360° control elicits both awe and empathic responses. Awe was found to have directly influenced individuals’ PEB, whereas empathy with nature had a positive effect on PEB mediated by PCE. This research provides insights into the mechanisms of awe and empathy in relation to PEB, as well as the importance of PCE. Our findings also provide practical, design implications in the use of immersive technologies to encourage pro-environmental actions.