Using virtual reality to close psychological distances

Communication and Technology  Health and Science  Political Communication 

Despite agreement among most scientists and climate experts that climate change is real and poses a major threat to the planet, apathy and denial towards it persist and proliferate. While politics plays a big role in people’s attitudes, there are also several psychological reasons for people to be apathetic, and researchers are looking for new technology for ways to close these psychological gaps. A new study co-authored by Assistant Professor of Media Production, Management, and Technology Eugy Han explored ways to use virtual reality (VR) in climate change communication and found that VR was an effective tool at reducing climate indifference among its participants.

“This study highlights VR’s unique advantage over more static media (e.g., images in this case) in evoking a sense of “being in” a place, which allows people to interpret emotional and informational cues more deeply,” explained Han.

The largest driving force behind climate change indifference, aside from politics, is psychological distance, or the degree to which people feel removed from a phenomenon. There are four types of psychological distance: hypothetical, temporal, spatial and social. Hypothetical distance is an individual’s belief that an event is not guaranteed, and if it might not happen then there’s no reason to worry about it. Temporal distance is an individual’s belief that an event will happen far in the future, and that there’s no need to worry about it right now. Spatial distance is an individual’s belief that an event will happen, but that they live far enough away from affected areas to avoid it. Finally, social distance is an individual’s belief that while an event will eventually happen, it will affect other people and not them.

For years, climate change researchers and communicators have struggled to close this psychological distance for many people, but VR could offer a unique solution. According to Han and her team, “people respond more to direct experiences than to abstract statistics, and research has illustrated that statistical descriptions of climate risks fail to elicit action because climate change is a slow-moving and often invisible process that cannot be experienced directly.” VR, however, is an immersive technology, able to place people directly into the places most affected by climate change from their living rooms.

To test the effectiveness of VR in reducing apathy towards climate change, Han and her team put together a study that included. a control group, where participants viewed still images of areas affected by climate change and a treatment group where participants would put on a VR headset and explore areas familiar to them using FlyVR, a program that allows users to virtually fly through locations. In both groups, participants heard news stories about the area they visited being affected by climate change. Following the study,

participants were surveyed on what emotions they experienced, how close they felt to the areas they were exploring and how their attitudes towards climate change had shifted throughout the study.

The researchers found that VR was successful at closing the psychological distances between the study’s participants and the places they explored. It was much more effective at decreasing climate change indifference when compared to using static imagery, with participants feeling a greater attachment to the areas they explored using the FlyVR program. It also elicited more positive emotions among participants, who reported feeling more awe and spatial presence in VR. These findings were consistent regardless of participants’ political views on the subject, although those who identified as liberal were more strongly affected than those identifying as conservative.

“Being immersed in a new environment can prompt people to form these emotional and conceptual connections through exposure — which is not something we may achieve as effectively through other forms of communication,” said Han.

Next steps include further narrowing down what types of VR experiences are most effective at closing those psychological distances. “There are so many different types of VR experiences that are possible, and this raises questions about what kinds of narrative and interaction are most effective at eliciting certain emotions,” she explained.

Posted: December 17, 2025
Insights Categories: Communication and Technology, Health and Science, Political Communication
Tagged as: Climate change, Eugy Han, virtual reality