"The effects of human intervention on the environment are numerous and increasingly devastating. Many species of animals have become endangered due to environmental changes and an encroachment on their natural habitats. Unfortunately, research indicates that it can be difficult to keep people informed and actively engaged with environmental issues. In the United States, a common method to keep the public informed and engaged with environmental issues are public service announcements (PSAs). However, some research indicates that PSAs may not be as effective with millennial viewers in a modern day multi-media landscape. Recent studies have indicated that virtual reality (VR) may provide an effective means of engaging the public via public service experiences (PSEs). The present study builds and expands upon the PSE literature by continuing to explore possible mechanisms, and their relation to one another, that may account for PSE effects. Furthermore, this study fills a gap in the literature related to gradient manipulations of immersive factors. Additionally, this study also makes a contribution to the literature by examining the concepts of natural mapping and narrative interactivity from two distinct perspectives. Specifically, natural mapping is examined along naturalness and intuitiveness dimensions while narrative interactivity is examined along technical and content interactivity dimensions. Finally, this study seeks to explore the possibility that pro-environmental PSE's might have the ability to activate other associated environmental attitudes. In order to explore the above questions, an experiment was conducted which tested the potential impacts of narrative interactivity and naturally mapped movement in a PSE. The experiment was a between-subjects factorial design. Specifically, the experiment was a 2 (high and low narrative interactivity) x 3 (low, medium, and high natural mapping) factorial design. The sample for this study consisted of 183 undergraduate college students obtained from a large mid-western university in the United States. The experiment involved exposing participants to approximately a 10-minute virtual experience/environment which includes endangered wildlife, such as elephants. Naturally mapped locomotion and narrative interactivity should be considered a multi-dimensional concept with both naturalness and intuitiveness sub-constructs and technical and content sub-constructs respectively. In this case, perceived locomotion intuitiveness was a statistically significant predictor of participants' feelings of spatial presence while perceived locomotion naturalness was not. Similarly, perceived content interactivity was a statistically significant predictor of participants' feelings of narrative transportation while perceived technical interactivity was not. Spatial presence and narrative transportation then served as a mediators between natural mapping/narrative interactivity and participants' pro-environmental attitudes and behavioral intentions. This study makes both theoretical and practical contributions to the literature. Theoretically, both natural mapping and narrative interactivity should be considered multi-dimensional constructs which have implications for the formation of spatial presence and narrative transportation. Practically, designers of PSEs should consider the importance of making locomotion more intuitive rather than more natural while emphasizing users' ability to interact with virtual stories rather than just virtual environments."--Pages ii-iii.
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