“Nature Environments Without Actually Being There”: Virtual Recreation Experiences and Real-World Intentions

Outdoor recreation offers numerous mental and physical health benefits (Rakow & Eells, 2019). Particularly for college students, outdoor recreation can provide beneficial outcomes to alleviate depression, anxiety, and hopelessness (Ewert & Davidson, 2021; Puhakka, 2021; Rosa et al., 2023). Despite these benefits, young adults participate in outdoor recreation activities far less than older individuals (Outdoor Foundation, 2022). Campus-based outdoor programs may help encourage participation among students, but proximity to outdoor recreation does not ensure participation and risk aversion may also limit engagement (Ball et al., 2023; Jarvis et al., 2020).

Virtual reality provides a potential pathway to motivate students to pursue real-world outdoor recreation. Experiences with virtual nature may increase nature connectedness (Sneed et al., 2021), but it is less clear whether these experiences encourage intent to recreate outside. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether virtual reality nature experiences influence intent and self-efficacy to recreate in nature among college students. The research questions guiding the study are: (a) Do virtual reality nature experiences influence participant intent and self-efficacy to engage in nature-based recreation as measured with the self-efficacy and intention measures for spending time in nature scales (Maddock et al., 2022)? (b) How do college students experience nature in virtual reality?

Theoretical Framework

This study used the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) to investigate student experiences following their virtual recreation experience, including their pre-existing perspectives about nature. This theory was chosen as this study is most interested in participant intent to engage in outdoor recreation, not their actual behavior of doing so. This theory is also well-suited given the previous knowledge and experience that participants may have with nature. The Theory of Planned Behavior accounts for an individual's “attitude toward the behavior” (Ajzen, 1991, p. 182) prior to examining their intention to pursue it. In this case, a participant's attitude toward outdoor recreation, and if it seems like an accessible activity, is key.

Method

This study used a mixed methods design (Creswell & Clark, 2017), incorporating pre- and post-experience surveys of 32 student participants (along with a comparison group of 26 students in a similar level course); document analysis of Instagram posts generated by 11 student small groups (consisting of 43 student participants) following virtual reality nature experiences, and semi-structured follow-up interviews with 5 student participants. Demographic data will be included in the final manuscript. Mixed methods design was chosen due to the exploratory nature of this study: while there is a large body of research in virtual reality generally, there are fewer studies in nature-based virtual reality and fewer still investigating virtual reality nature experiences in a coursework setting.

Participants in this study were recruited from an introductory parks, recreation and tourism course (N = 45) at a large, research-intensive university in the Southeastern US. As part of the course, small groups of students visited an on-campus virtual reality studio to engage in virtual recreation experiences during one class session. Students used virtual reality headsets and engaged in three experiences: watching an immersive 360 video recording of a rushing creek in Western North Carolina; exploring a computer-generated scene of a forested area through the Nature Treks application; and visiting a nature area of interest via the Google Earth VR app (which uses 360 degree still images). After students completed these individually, they participated in small group discussions. Groups then created a collaborative Instagram post summarizing their experiences and discussion. Data analysis followed the Corbin and Strauss (2015) approach to reading interviews, coding them to find concepts, identifying broad categories or themes, and finally looking for axial codes amongst the data that indicate patterns.

Findings

The pre-test survey was administered to both the participant (n = 32) and comparison (n = 26) groups in January of 2023 with the second instrument administered in April of 2023. This survey instrument included the self-efficacy and intentions measures for time spent in nature (TSN) scales (Maddock et al., 2022) as well as questions related to participant demographics and open-ended comments about their experience. Paired t-tests were conducted using the 8-item intention to spend time in nature scale and 14-item self-efficacy for spending time in nature scale (Maddock et al., 2022). Intention to spend time in nature stayed consistent across the treatment period for both groups, with the comparison group showing a slight decrease in intention to spend time in nature while the participant group experienced a slight increase, with both changes statistically insignificant (p > .05). Results were similar for self-efficacy for spending time in nature with the participant group showing a slight increase and the comparison group showing a slight decrease in mean score with statistical insignificance (p > .05).

Analysis of interviews and group Instagram posts showed more promising results and indicated potential limitations that might have kept students from experiencing change in quantitative scores. Themes from these data indicated that students were mostly new to virtual reality and, if they had experienced it before, it was more often in a video game or school context rather than a nature-based experience. Challenges with the equipment were also a major theme, with participants struggling initially with the bulk of the headset as well as learning how to use the controllers. A few students experienced motion sickness or other physical discomfort, though this was the exception rather than the norm.

Once participants gained relative comfort with the technology, many expressed surprise at how realistic the nature experiences were, in particular, the photo-realistic (not computer-generated) experiences of 360-degree video and Google Earth. “I was just super shocked of how immersive it was,” one participant said. Another participant commented that virtual recreation was a way to experience “nature environments without actually being there.” Similarly, one group's Instagram post suggested that virtual reality nature had some similar outcomes with real nature when they observed, “Overall, we all agreed that each experience was relaxing due to its immersive nature, and allowed us to dive deeper into our sense of adventure.” One participant noted the potential for virtual reality to increase access and be “used to supplement nature experiences … for people who only have a small amount of time.”

Discussion and Potential Significance

This study contributes to existing literature on nature-based recreation amongst college students, while also providing new directions for future research. When viewed through the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991), quantitative results do not support increased intention for participants to engage in nature-based recreation, but qualitative data indicates that this lack of change may be more due to usability of technology; the need for more virtual reality nature content; or may be related to students intentions to visit specific places, rather than access nature broadly). Future behavior might also be limited due to the intent behavior gap, where individuals might not follow through on planned behavior.

With the exploratory nature of this study incorporating multiple virtual reality platforms (360-degree video, still images through Google Earth, and computer-generated experiences), participant preference for photorealistic content shows a need for more content like this. Outdoor recreation professionals have largely not been involved in creating virtual reality content or recruiting participants through this pathway. While there are numerous studies showing its potential with research populations (e.g., Browning et al., 2020; Sneed et al., 2021), nature in virtual reality applications does not have the presence and popularity of video games and other computer-generated content. Future research should focus on the potential for 360-degree video experiences and how these experiences can be made more widely available.