Research by a professor at Duke Kunshan University has revealed ways metaverse nature environments could be created that would have a positive influence on people’s attitudes to the environment.
Published by the academic journal Technological Forecasting and Social Change, the paper demonstrates a demand for realistic virtual forest environments that could provide a new opportunity for people to learn about nature and potentially encourage participation in conservation. However, it also identifies challenges to setting up such online spaces, ranging from cyberaggression to data privacy fears.
“We know online environments can influence how people react to the real world, so a digital forest environment could impact attitudes to nature,” said the research paper’s author, Wanggi Jaung, assistant professor of environmental policy.
“My aim was to explore what makes an attractive digital forest environment in the metaverse that people will want to use, using tried and measurable research techniques, as well as identifying what factors could be obstacles to that,” he added.
The metaverse is the cutting edge of the internet, an immersive online world where people can attend virtual concerts, do virtual shopping, go to a virtual office or attend virtual class. It is a relatively new concept that is likely to affect many existing digital technologies such as social media, online games and online shopping.
Jaung’s study, titled Digital Forest Recreation in the Metaverse: Opportunities and Challenges, looked at how a virtual digital forest in this three-dimensional online world could be created that might have a positive impact on attitudes to the environment, using 113 undergraduates from Duke Kunshan, aged 18 to 22 as its subjects.
They were surveyed about such an environment, with questions split into two parts: the first looking at their experiences and perspectives of digital forest recreation, as well as their preferences for metaverse activities; the second a discrete choice experiment designed to reveal their preferences for digital forest recreation in the metaverse. A discrete choice experiment is a survey designed to elicit answers without asking direct questions, by for example asking about preferred choices between a range of scenarios.
The study found a preference for lifelike environments, populated with real wildlife, over fictional parks and animated characters, implying a “potential to influence users and their interactions with nature,” according to the report.
“The findings suggest users want to experience digital nature that reflects reality. This virtual world, a copy of real wild places, that mirrors actual existing forests, could help users learn about nature and come to appreciate it more,” said Jaung.
“Monitoring our real-world impact on nature in this digital world – issues such as deforestation and endangered species – could also encourage public participation in conservation,” he added.
While the results were encouraging, he also revealed a number of potential barriers to people using digital metaverse forests. Study participants showed fears about aggression and harassment by other users in the metaverse, and preferred the idea that they should be verified or invited to the platform in order to limit this. They were also concerned about data privacy, the potential for biased algorithms that could discriminate based on race or sex and aggressive monetization. And, while they preferred a realistic environment, they did not want to encounter the less pleasant aspects of a real forest, such as mosquitos.
“Responsible and responsive immersive digital forest environments will be essential to people wanting to use them,” said Jaung. “So, some system of filtering out the things people don’t want will be needed for them to be a success.”
More research is now needed to build on the study, he added, looking at a broader demographic group, narrowing down activities within the forest to things such as hiking or climbing, and costs.
