With the rise of virtual reality technology, traditional media can be now consumed in a more immersive modality. Furthermore, the inclusion of haptic feedback (i.e., physical responses within the modality) brings a new sense to media that otherwise rely on visual/auditory senses. Traditional media (e.g., advertisements) need to be re-examined as our cognitive processing can potentially change within the new modality and accompanying technology. The present study investigates the role of haptic feedback on the efficacy and cognitive processing of fear appeal advertisements in virtual reality. Participants watched a short, low-threat safe-driving advertisement in virtual reality, feeling haptic feedback be played either at the beginning, middle, or end of the stimulus. Afterwards, participants answered questionnaire items pertaining to their self-reported fear, self-reported perceived threat, attitudes and behaviors/intentions towards safe driving, and their memory of the stimulus. Results provide support for perceived threat having a positive effect on attitudes and behaviors/intentions, but not for memory. There is no support for the positive influence of haptic feedback on perceived threat. Furthermore, there is only support for a significant difference in one section of memory between conditions, but no support for the other sections, potentially due to haptic manipulations or the chosen stimulus. In summary, this study suggests that haptic feedback might work better as an orienting eliciting structural feature for the perceptual resource pool rather than cognitive. Implications are provided as well as directions for future research studies.
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