Virtual Nature

Abstract

In the future, virtual reality technology will allow people to experience nature in a simulated environment—virtual nature. This article examines the implications of the availability of virtual nature experiences in three research studies. The first study showed that people would be interested in owning a virtual nature system and have a variety of expected uses for it. The second study showed that the commercial media’s presentation of nature tends to cause people to devalue their emotional experience of local natural areas. The third study showed that one of the effects of simulated nature experiences is to increase support for the preservation of national parks and forests, but it decreases support for the acquisition and preservation of local natural areas. Overall, these results suggest some of the dangers of the increasing use of information technology to simulate environments for people to experience. Widespread use of virtual nature could reduce support for the preservation of local natural environments, and these environments play a key role in the global ecology.