How Cognitive Absorption Influences Responses to Immersive Narratives of Environmental Threats

Nongovernment organizations are increasingly leveraging the metaverse and its suite of extended reality technologies, such as 360° video and virtual reality, to immerse audiences in situations depicting environmental threats. The promise of immersive storytelling as a conservation tool is predicated on the verisimilitude of the mediated experience, with exposure to environmental threats in immersive video akin to in vivo exposure. However, the psychological mechanisms explaining users' environmental responses to immersive stories remain ambiguous. In three controlled laboratory experiments, we examined unique properties (e.g., interactivity and modality) of immersive technologies vis-à-vis environmental stories and their influence on proenvironmental outcomes. Study 1 (N = 48) implemented a two-condition (interactivity: high vs. low) between-subjects experiment, showing that interactive 360° video significantly influenced attitudes through the mechanism of cognitive absorption. A 2 (interactivity: high/low) × 2 (distance: proximal/distant) between-subjects experiment (study 2; N = 76) further supported this mediation model by showing the mediating effects of cognitive absorption on attitudes and threat perceptions toward both distant and proximal threats. Lastly, study 3 (N = 68) replicated the mediating effects of cognitive absorption across 360° video modalities, though head-mounted display-based, rather than screen-based, 360° videos only significantly increased attitudes and absorption when threats were proximal. We discuss the results' practical and theoretical implications and propose avenues for future research. Moreover, we outline important considerations for environmental organizations seeking to leverage metaverse platforms for communicating environmental threats.