The benefits of nature tourism, or nature-based travel, are plentiful. For example, participation in nature tours has positively impacted environmental attitudes and behaviors. Unfortunately, while psychologically beneficial, nature-based tourism can hurt the environment through a myriad of factors. Therefore, we must continue to explore ways to make the benefits of nature-based travel more sustainable and impactful. Research suggests that nature-based travel in virtual reality (VR) may impart numerous travel benefits, such as improving conservational behavior and interconnectedness with nature. While these early findings are promising, questions remain regarding the theoretical mechanisms underlying the effects of nature-based VR travel. Therefore, this study explores how VR may provide an avenue to make nature tourism more environmentally friendly while simultaneously making people more environmentally connected and conscious. Furthermore, a theoretical framework is posited that combines concepts from the spatial presence and narrative persuasion literature to help explain the effects. To accomplish these goals, an experiment was conducted using a two-condition (VR travel vs. TV control) between-subjects factorial design with random assignment. The participants were 66 college students from a large Midwestern University in the United States. Results indicated that there wasn't a statistically significant difference between the VR travel condition and the television (TV) control condition regarding the environmental outcome variables. However, while the nature-based VR travel experience did not appear to influence the environmental outcome variables directly, it did indirectly affect them through the mediating roles of spatial presence and narrative engagement.

中文翻译：

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虚拟现实中基于自然的旅行的影响：空间存在和叙事参与的作用。

自然旅游或基于自然的旅行的好处是很多的。例如，参与自然之旅对环境态度和行为产生了积极影响。不幸的是，虽然基于自然的旅游对心理有益，但它可能会通过多种因素损害环境。因此，我们必须继续探索如何使自然旅行的好处更具可持续性和影响力。研究表明，虚拟现实 (VR) 中基于自然的旅行可能会带来许多旅行好处，例如改善保护行为和与自然的相互联系。虽然这些早期发现很有希望，但基于自然的 VR 旅行影响背后的理论机制仍然存在疑问。因此，本研究探讨了虚拟现实如何提供一种途径，使自然旅游更加环保，同时使人们更加环保、更加环保。此外，还提出了一个理论框架，结合了空间存在和叙事说服文献中的概念，以帮助解释其影响。为了实现这些目标，我们使用两种条件（VR 旅行与电视控制）受试者间因子设计和随机分配进行了实验。参与者是来自美国中西部一所大型大学的66名大学生。结果表明，在环境结果变量方面，VR 旅行条件和电视 (TV) 控制条件之间不存在统计学上的显着差异。然而，虽然基于自然的 VR 旅行体验似乎并没有直接影响环境结果变量，但它确实通过空间存在和叙事参与的中介作用间接影响它们。