Testing presence, assessing attitudes: Study of a 3D virtual tour in an "aesthetically challenged" landscape. (1st July 2023) - Steidle, Stuart
Abstract: This article examines the utility of 3D immersive media for enhancing public attitudes toward rare, open-canopied habitat restoration where the proposed treatments and outcomes may appear risky, unsightly, and at odds with people's sense of place in a forested landscape. We used 360° videos and video game software to build the first desktop-based, virtual tour of fire-dependent Pine Barrens restoration practices in Wisconsin's Northwoods in order to intervene where stakeholders have disapproved of pine barrens through conventional messaging. The study measured changes in attitudes toward clear-cutting, prescribed fire, and pine barrens between participant groups in a 2D- and 3D-media informational intervention including 73 subjects from Wisconsin and Minnesota. Results showed that both media interventions significantly enhanced attitudes across all three target categories, despite increased spatial presence, or immersion, in the 3D format. Against the 2D treatment, the 3D tour significantly enhanced both people's aesthetic sense of pine barrens and their attitudes toward this landscape for those whose initial attitudes were neutral or negative. Highlights: 2D and 3D media equally enhance public attitudes on prairie-like habitat restoration. 2D and 3D media equally enhance public attitudes on intensive treatments like fire. Interactive 3D media is apt to improve aesthetic judgments of lesser valued habitats. 3D media better convinces neutral or oppositional publics to approve of pine barrens. Public attitudes to mechanical thinning are more rigid than views on prescribed fire.