Causal links of presence

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine antecedent variables and an outcome variable of presence. Presence has been used to explain the extent to which technology users are immersed and involved in a technology-created experience. In video gaming, gamers frequently don't distinguish between reality and the game world, and they identify characters with themselves. This comes from a high level of presence. So what makes technology users have greater presence? The present study proposes a causal model which includes attitude and empathy as antecedent variables that lead to a degree of presence and then para-social interaction as an outcome of presence level. The results showed that path analysis of the model was successfully supported. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.