WP3: Let’s Just Make it Fun

The “Psychological Factors that Contribute to Environmental Decision-Making” survey in my WP2 proved how environmental moral values cannot always be prioritized over various life values, including the desire for amusement, money, and comfort. In particular, the desire for entertainment played an impactful role in humans’ environmental decision-making. Although 87% of participants agreed or strongly agreed that humans had the responsibility to keep the proper distance from wildlife, more than half of the participants answered that, at the same cost, they would rather swim along with live dolphins instead of alternative sustainable options. With these survey results, we encounter two questions. How are we going to make people control their desires for entertainment? Or is that even possible?

This situation is never equivalent to a child’s resolution to wait patiently for the second marshmallow. Another marshmallow is guaranteed, immediate, and visible. But when making environmental decisions, we hardly see any sweet marshmallows that motivate us to resist the desire for pleasure. The true rewards — protecting the ecosystem and the intrinsic beauty of nature — just seem distant. In other words, forcing humans to oppress their desire for amusement and prioritize environmental values is simply impossible and inefficient. We are now entering an urgent era where time is more precious than anything else, and I believe we should try a novel approach: using humans’ desire for entertainment as an opportunity instead.

Humans’ amusement related to wildlife has been mostly derived from improper, intimate interaction, so providing the same or even stronger sense of entertainment and emotional experience without exploiting real wild animals is demanding. In pursuit of sustainable yet accessible solutions, I would like to suggest virtual reality (VR) as our innovative breakthrough to maximize the entertaining elements offered by the immersive wildlife experience. VR is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment where users can explore and interact with the environment in 360 degrees. Its versatility has the potential to magnify all three sources of joy provided by the original wildlife experience — an emotional bond with animals, the serenity that leads to self-contemplation, and a feeling of uniqueness and specialness.

The emotional relationship between humans and animals is the most essential and delightful aspect of the wildlife experience. Working as an intern at a dolphin research organization, I was surprised to see how 120 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins on Jeju Island all already had friendly names like Moai or Chu. They demonstrated humans’ love for keeping knit kinship with wild animals. According to Shackley, the most fulfilling tourism experience involves active participation, allowing tourists to establish temporary affinity with a different species or environment. (Shackley, 1996) As creating an intimate emotional relationship with wildlife bestows great satisfaction and delight on humans, people have been trying to get closer to wild animals via aquariums, zoos, or swim-with-dolphin programs.

Interactive virtual reality can switch people from the position of a bystander to a member of the wilderness, greatly enhancing emotional engagement. The best strategy is applying “perspective-taking” to VR, the mental simulation of placing oneself in the shoes of another. When individuals embody the experiences of animals and adopt their perspective, the sensory-rich experience and the ability to control the embodied animal make them feel a stronger sense of interconnectedness with nature than watching a video or observing animals through a glass window. According to Schultz, identities merge to the extent that humans include nature in thinking about themselves. (Schultz, 2001) This opportunity strengthens humans’ emotional attachment to wildlife, especially by fostering a sense of empathy, an important emotion for creating profound bonds.

How immersive virtual reality could boost human emotional empathy is already proven. Ahn and colleagues demonstrated that engaging in a perspective-taking task through immersive virtual environments, where participants experienced visual disability, resulted in more significant helping behavior in the real world than merely imagining the disability. (Ahn et al., 2013) If individuals get used to taking the perspective of nature and getting empathetic, they will be more likely to bring out pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. As humans find it exciting to be emotionally close to wildlife, we should take advantage of immersive virtual reality’s outstanding ability to promote the interconnection with animals.

Simply standing still in a natural setting and seeing wildlife can evoke feelings of profound happiness as well. When absorbed in the peaceful nature, we always feel like time has stopped. Everything else is blocked out, and we get the time to reconnect and contemplate. Wildlife viewing functions as an escape from the ‘go-faster, future-oriented’ world, offering delightful mental refreshment and mindfulness.

The virtual reality setting is suited for producing that type of therapeutic experience. When we put on the VR headset, we meet an isolated environment alone, with a sense of detachment from the real world. This personal space supports the users in being absorbed in nature’s slow time and enjoying the calm elements that stop fast time. A study showed that EDA, the measure of skin conductance that represents the stress level, dropped exponentially after the participants explored the nature of Ireland and Australia through virtual reality. (Anderson et al., 2017) The relaxing effect of virtual reality presenting nature could be utilized to appeal to people who desire that type of satisfaction.

In the humanistic tradition, feeling unique promotes happiness and well-being, and this human nature is getting more intense these days, as proved by the growth of the experience economy. We tend to spend money on a meaningful experience or event over buying something luxurious or desirable. Especially through social media, the millennial generation consumes others’ experiences and constantly keeps up, satisfied when they are able to share unique experiences. One of those “shareable” uncommon experiences is the close interaction with wildlife. According to World Animal Protection, there was a 292% increase in the number of wildlife selfies on Instagram between 2014 and 2017, while 40% included inappropriate interactions such as hugging or holding a wild animal. (World Animal Protection, 2017) Wildlife is considered awe-inspiring, mystic, and uncommon; thus, humans feel special and pleasant to participate in and share wildlife experiences.

The immersive virtual reality experience itself has exclusivity because it creates the illusion of going on adventures that may be difficult to achieve in the real world. Escaping the ordinary makes individuals feel significant within that space. Also, the novelty of cutting-edge technology and the relatively limited access to this technology so far can contribute to a special, pleasant feeling. However, this VR experience might not be that particular type of the usual unique experience that was “shareable” or “Instagrammable.” It is challenging for people to take aesthetic or dynamic pictures during the VR experience. While this aspect can be one of VR’s weaknesses, the versatility of this technology remedies that shortcoming, as it offers two new sources of entertainment beyond those offered by the original interaction with wildlife: games and storytelling.

My first VR experience was back in middle school when I visited a new VR arcade center with my friend. I vividly remember that my first game was about space: in a spaceship, I engaged in the most fierce and dynamic interstellar battles. While we were captivated by the vastness and beauty of space, a sense of achievement and amusement filled our minds as we completed each mission successfully; we ended up staying a few hours at that arcade.

In 1981, Malone introduced three intrinsic motivation factors produced by video game play — challenge, fantasy, and curiosity. (Malone, 1981) These components suggest how virtual reality is significantly suitable for video gameplay. VR can magnify fantasy by transcending the boundaries in real life and maximizing sensory curiosity with a dramatic increase in visual, sonic, and kinesthetic sensory delight. Although few VR-based games related to wildlife conservation have been developed yet, a few environmentally related video games have become instant hits. One is Splatoon, a third-person shooter game set in a future post-apocalyptic Earth setting inhabited by anthropomorphic marine animals, implying the high possibility of countless animal extinctions due to the climate crisis. Surprisingly, the series has sold over 28 million copies. (Kawasaki, 2022) This case proves how gamification’s universal fun and captivating quality can be used as a pathway for environmental communication.

Storytelling is another additional entertainment source provided by VR. In a real-life wildlife experience, the storyline is determined by the unpredictable nature of the wilderness, unfolding based on the natural behavior of animals and environmental conditions. In addition to this realistic non-fiction option, VR wildlife experiences can further incorporate storytelling elements more purposefully to create a curated and creative narrative. Developers create fictional scenarios, mythical characters, or futuristic environments that overcome the constraints of reality. This feature enables a broader range of narratives than is feasible in real-life wildlife experiences. This joy of VR storytelling will be a more significant factor, especially in children’s environmental science communication.

While maintaining the three delightful elements provided by the original real-life wildlife experience, VR had the potential to bring out two novel opportunities for a broad range of people to recognize wildlife conservation issues in an entertaining way. That is, it can replace and even complement the original real-life wildlife experience successfully. However, in the end, whether the fun VR experience can result in long-term, observable changes in pro-environmental behavior will be critical. How can we ensure that the one-time amusing experience can successfully be switched into a long-term commitment?

A fluid, balanced mixture of educational messages and entertaining elements will become the determining factor. Although the participants should be engaged in the entertainment experience, learning about the severe wildlife conservation problems is mandatory to take action after the activity. Concentrating information in one certain place or straightforwardly presenting wordy information would immediately lose people’s interest and diminish the impact of the entertaining elements. Instead, by embodying the learning material within the structure of the VR experience, we can encourage the participant to gradually meet the lessons throughout the entire activity.

For instance, in a VR program where the players take an animal’s point of view and interact with other wildlife, we can include some scenes that vividly depict the suffering of wild animals due to human activities. This natural integration of scenarios related to wildlife conservation allows people to engage cognitively with the learning material without feeling overwhelmed or repulsed. Furthermore, it will promote a thoughtful exploration of the complex dynamics influencing our ecosystems. Creating and designing their own virtual wildlife sanctuaries can also be an effective, entertaining VR program since the sense of accomplishment would inspire individuals to set and pursue similar pro-environmental goals in reality.

Moreover, the user should never feel interrupted by the technological deficiencies of virtual reality during their experience. We do not have unlimited opportunities to inspire people; the one-time amusing experience must be immersive, captivating, and compelling to a maximum level. In the “Psychological Factors that Contribute to Environmental Decision-Making” survey, I asked, “What should people focus on developing? VR or robotic dolphins?” Although the majority selected VR aquariums, those who chose other options pointed out the significant limitations of the current VR experience. They commented, “VR makes me really motion sick, unfortunately.” An unpleasant setting would contradict the amusing value of VR, discouraging individuals from participating in the VR programs. Therefore, advancing VR hardware for increased comfort is our essential mission.

Improving motion-tracking accuracy, minimizing sensory conflicts, or avoiding abrupt acceleration and angle changes will contribute to a smoother and more comfortable VR experience. Providing the users with greater control could also resolve the issue. Specifically, it would be helpful if the users could customize their VR experience by adjusting the field of views or movements to suit their sensitivity levels. These technological improvements will enhance the tool’s efficacy and ensure that a wide range of participants can engage in this crucial learning experience without worrying about unfavorable physical reactions. A larger audience always leads to a higher occurrence of pro-environmental commitment.

Finally, the key to humans’ amusement and entertainment is novelty. In order to support the learning experience over time, a sufficient variety and quantity of content is essential. The program’s content needs to be continuously updated to make each program unique. We can diversify the virtual wildlife experience framework by showcasing various ecosystems, providing different animal perspectives, and offering numerous dynamic interactions with other animals. Nevertheless, when it comes to VR games, diverse and extensive content is not enough to keep the players engaged; depth is required in addition. Increasing the complexity of game mechanics and making each loop harder to master should be the fundamental rule when designing VR games that discuss wildlife conservation.

Attracting those who want amusement to wildlife conservation and ultimately transforming that desire for entertainment into the desire to pursue environmental moral values — this process is challenging. Still, it is viable with the assistance of VR technology. Its dynamic technological features can provide both the old and new entertaining values of the wildlife experience, encouraging people to initiate pro-environmental behavior.

Wildlife conservation issues are very different from others; most other environmental issues lack the ability to leverage humans’ desires for pleasure successfully. For example, air pollution, energy conservation, food waste, and plastic pollution primarily address non-living things and industrial activities, which humans find difficult to commit to emotionally. While wildlife conservation’s spiritual and emotional aspects make it more accessible to draw people’s attention, it is always intertwined with broader environmental concerns. This distinctive characteristic adds a strong motive for us to develop VR technology to improve wildlife protection motivations efficiently; the effective use of wildlife VR programs could serve as a gateway for humans to pay attention to more considerable environmental challenges.

Works Cited

Anderson, A. P., Mayer, M. D., Fellows, A., Cowan, D. R., Hegel, M. T., & Buckey, J. C. (2017). Relaxation with Immersive Natural Scenes Presented Using Virtual Reality. Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance, 88(6), 520–526. https://doi.org/10.3357/amhp.4747.2017

Ahn, S. J., Le, A. M. T., & Bailenson, J. N. (2013). The Effect of Embodied Experiences on Self-Other Merging, Attitude, and Helping Behavior. Media Psychology, 16(1), 7–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2012.755877

Instagram acts to stop animal cruelty. (2023, October 6). World Animal Protection. https://www.worldanimalprotection.org/latest/press-releases/instagram-acts-stop-animal-cruelty/

Malone, T. W. (1981). Toward a theory of intrinsically motivating instruction*. Cognitive Science, 5(4), 333–369. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0504_2

Kawasaki, N. (2022, November 8). Nintendo raises profit forecast after Splatoon 3 boost. Nikkei Asia. https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Media-Entertainment/Nintendo-raises-profit-forecast-after-Splatoon-3-boost

Schultz, P. W. (2001). The Structure of Environmental Concern: Concern for Self, Other People, and the Biosphere. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21(4), 327–339. https://doi.org/10.1006/jevp.2001.0227

Shackley, M. L. (1996). Wildlife tourism. Cengage Learning.