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To Shelter or Not To Shelter: Exploring the Influence of Different Modalities in Virtual Reality on Individuals' Tornado Mitigation Behaviors

Jiuyi Xu, Tolulope Sanni, Ziming Liu, Ye Yang, Jiyoung Lee, Wei Song, Yangming Shi

Abstract

Timely and adequate risk communication before natural hazards can reduce losses from extreme weather events and provide more resilient disaster preparedness. However, existing natural hazard risk communications have been abstract, ineffective, not immersive, and sometimes counterproductive. The implementation of virtual reality (VR) for natural hazard risk communication presents a promising alternative to the existing risk communication system by offering immersive and engaging experiences. However, it is still unknown how different modalities in VR could affect individuals' mitigation behaviors related to incoming natural hazards. In addition, it is also not clear how the repetitive risk communication of different modalities in the VR system leads to the effect of risk habituation. To fill the knowledge gap, we developed a VR system with a tornado risk communication scenario and conducted a mixed-design human subject experiment (N = 24). We comprehensively investigated our research using both quantitative and qualitative results.

To Shelter or Not To Shelter: Exploring the Influence of Different Modalities in Virtual Reality on Individuals' Tornado Mitigation Behaviors

Abstract

Timely and adequate risk communication before natural hazards can reduce losses from extreme weather events and provide more resilient disaster preparedness. However, existing natural hazard risk communications have been abstract, ineffective, not immersive, and sometimes counterproductive. The implementation of virtual reality (VR) for natural hazard risk communication presents a promising alternative to the existing risk communication system by offering immersive and engaging experiences. However, it is still unknown how different modalities in VR could affect individuals' mitigation behaviors related to incoming natural hazards. In addition, it is also not clear how the repetitive risk communication of different modalities in the VR system leads to the effect of risk habituation. To fill the knowledge gap, we developed a VR system with a tornado risk communication scenario and conducted a mixed-design human subject experiment (N = 24). We comprehensively investigated our research using both quantitative and qualitative results.
Paper Structure (38 sections, 1 equation, 10 figures, 3 tables)

This paper contains 38 sections, 1 equation, 10 figures, 3 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. RELATED WORK
  3. Existing Natural Hazard Risk Communication Methods
  4. Multi-Channel Communication
  5. Community Engagement and Education
  6. Early Warning Systems
  7. Different Modalities of Risk Communication
  8. VR Technologies in Risk Communication
  9. Mitigation behavior and Risk Habituation
  10. METHOD
  11. The overview of the VR system
  12. Apparatus
  13. Virtual Environment Setup
  14. Modality Design in VR
  15. Experiment design
  16. ...and 23 more sections

Figures (10)

  • Figure 1: VR environment design: (a) Exterior view of the house. (b) Scene distribution. (c) Interior view of the house. (d) Shelter sign.
  • Figure 2: Immersive effect design: (a) Rain. (b) Tornado.
  • Figure 3: Modality design in the VR system.
  • Figure 4: Experiment design. The order of the treatments and the trial in which the tornado occurs are random.
  • Figure 5: Experimental procedure.
  • ...and 5 more figures