דוקטורנטים מספרים - Tsur Mishal
Climate Change Here and Now - Effects of Immersive VR on Psychological Distance
Tsur Mishal (Ph.D. candidate)
Supervisors: Dr. Gal Raz (Tel Aviv University), Dr. Maya Negev (Haifa University), and Prof. Nurit Carmi (Tel Hai College)
I am currently doing doctoral research under the supervision of Dr. Gal Raz (Tel Aviv University), Dr. Maya Negev (Haifa University), and Prof. Nurit Carmi (Tel Hai College). The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is a "hotspot" in terms of climate change and its impacts (Waha 2017, IPCC, 2018). Observations made by the Israeli Meteorological Service (IMS) have shown that the last 15 years have been the hottest on record. Situated slightly above the desert line, and close to the Mediterranean Sea, Tel Aviv is becoming increasingly hotter and drier due to climate change.
In order to grasp these severe consequences, and react in a timely fashion, it is vital that we perceive ourselves as being personally affected by climate change. Unfortunately, however, many people have a limited capacity to do so, and they perceive climate change as psychologically distant, affecting "other people, far away" (Pahl et al. 2015, Lorenzoni, 2007).
My colleagues and I have adopted a personal perspective approach, using immersive Virtual Reality (VR), in which participants experience future climate change scenarios in Tel-Aviv, while immersed in their own realistic body scheme. This can simulate the effects of an actual personal climate change event as closely as possible to physical reality in the environment.
We aim to investigate whether a reduction of the psychological distance between the individual and the adverse consequences of climate change via virtual reality (VR) has an impact on three variables: genuine concern, climate curiosity, and willingness to act.
Through this experiment, we hope to introduce a novel method in which societal attitudes and concern towards climate change can be significantly influenced. This is a vital issue for promising a sustainable future for ourselves, and for future generations.
