Why just experience the future when you can change it: Virtual reality can increase pro-environmental food choices through self-efficacy.

Abstract

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) has the potential to play an important role in increasing environmental literacy by providing individuals the opportunity to experience plausible scenarios of climate change directly. However, there is currently little evidence fortheroleofIVR,andforspeci fi cdesignfeatures,inincreasingenvironmentalself-ef fi cacy.Themainobjectiveofthisstudywasto investigate the effects of an IVR intervention on pro-environmental intentions, knowledge, and transfer. A total of 90 middle school students were randomly assigned to two IVR intervention conditions: (a) Awareness, in which students experience the impact of their current food choices on future environmental change; (b) Awareness + Ef fi cacy, in which students had the opportunity to change their food choices and experience the positive impact of this on future environmental change. Both interventions resulted in signi fi cant increases in intentions, knowledge, and transfer. However, the Awareness + Ef fi cacy condition resulted in further signi fi cant increases in intentions and transfer than the awareness condition. Finally, mediation analysis showed that the effect of the Awareness + Ef fi cacy condition on intentions and transfer was fully mediated by self-ef fi cacy. These results suggest that allowing students not just to experience climate change but also to see the positive impact of changed personal choices can maximize the effectiveness of IVR on intentions and transfer.