An Abstract: Immersive Virtual Environments: A Whole New World

Abstract

Immersive virtual environments can and should be used as a methodological tool for experimental research. Virtual reality (VR) is often referred to by scientists as virtual environments (VEs) and is defined as “synthetic sensory information that leads to perceptions of environments and their contents as if they were not synthetic” (Blascovich et al. 2002, p. 105). Scientists extend the concept of VEs into a more specific immersive virtual environment (IVE) which is a psychological state characterized by being enveloped in, and interacting with, an environment (Witmer and Singer 1998). Through the construct of presence (Wiederhold and Wiederhold 2000), marketing academics can use IVEs as a tool to improve the current understanding of consumer behavior. Increased external validity while maintaining internal validity (Blaschovich et al. 2002; Loomis et al. 1999) and experimental controls will afford marketing academics the ability to investigate new and old concepts to an even deeper level. Persky and McBride (2009) claim that IVE technology gives researchers the ability to maintain high experimental control and implement implicit behavioral measurements. Despite the clear calls to action from Blaschovich et al. (2002), Loomis et al. (1999), and Persky and McBride (2009), IVEs are not investigated, nor used, as a major tool in top marketing journals. The use of IVEs affords researchers the ability to reduce hypothesis guessing in two ways. Researchers can create more complex environments that disguise the ability of the subject to effectively guess the hypothesis, and/or the researcher can eliminate the need to use attitudinal questionnaires to measure constructs by using behavioral cues instead of attitude-based constructs. These behavioral cues can be measured both qualitatively (viewed by the researcher) and quantitatively (coded into the experience). Hence, the use of IVEs will afford the researcher the ability to choose among more ways to investigate marketing phenomena. As with any methodological tool, IVEs have many issues to consider. Currently, VR is still a novel tool, despite being around since the 1990s. This novelty may discourage researchers who do not fully understand the experimental benefits of using IVEs. Despite leaps in technology, there is still a gap to be closed to eliminate the technical issues of VR, the most prominent being simulator sickness. Finally, as with any technological experiment, there are both a significant cost of time and resources required to develop and test IVEs.