A ‘front-row seat’ to catastrophe: testing the effect of immersive technologies on sympathy and pro-environmental behavior in the context of rising sea levels

For 63% of the world’s population living farther than 100 km (60 miles) from the coast, rising sea levels due to climate change represent a distal, abstract problem that might not appear to require urgent action. This poses a challenge to environmental educators seeking to foster pro-environmental responses. We tested if and how using immersive digital technologies like virtual reality (VR) can aid educators in overcoming this challenge. Participants in our experiment (N = 146) viewed a report on how rising sea levels affect contemporary Fijians either in high immersive VR (360° video in a head-mounted display) or in low immersive VR (360° video on a traditional computer screen). Pro-environmental intentions did not differ between the experimental conditions. However, perceived presence, a sense of ‘being there’, was higher in the high immersion condition than in the low immersion condition. Presence, in turn, correlated positively with pro-environmental intentions and sympathy but not problem awareness. This suggests that environmental education on rising sea levels aimed at promoting pro-environmental intentions might benefit from creating a heightened perception of presence.