Predictors of Engagement in Virtual Reality Storytelling Environments about Migration

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) environments provide a high level of immersion that expands the possibilities for perspective-taking so that people can be in the shoes of others. In that regard, VR storytelling environments are good for situating people in a real migration story. Previous research has investigated how users engage in narrative VR experiences. However, there is a lack of research on the predictors of engagement in VR storytelling environments. To fill this gap in the literature, this study aims to identify the predictors of engagement when VR is used as a medium to tell a migration story. A structural model based on hypotheses was validated using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with data from the interaction of 212 university students with a tailor-made VR experience developed in Unity to engage people in two migration stories. The results show that our model explains 55.2% of the variance in engagement because of the positive influence of immersion, presence, agency, usability, and user experience (UX).