Enduring Immersion: Persuasiveness of Multidimensional Immersive Experience

<jats:p>Immersive experience can be understood as the perception of being enveloped in a virtual environment. Common approaches include using virtual-reality (VR) headsets, 360-degree projections, or huge LED screens to create an illusion of being surrounded by another reality. Fully immersive experiences have proved effective in influencing attitudes and even behaviors. Meanwhile, partly immersive experiences via displays blended in physical settings can be persuasive too. This theoretical paper first reviews the notion of immersion in relation to a few nuanced concepts, followed by analyses of an array of innovative artifacts from the panorama, diorama, handscroll, web or device interfaces, to video games, arguing that immersive experience, as a long-lasting human creative pursuit, is multidimensional. It includes two characteristics, namely perceptual distance to a space and emotional involvement in a scene. While some artifacts are prominent only in one dimension, others span multiple dimensions, featuring “enduring immersion.” Enduring immersion allow people to vary their distances to a virtual space and involvements in a virtual scene at different times, hence enabling integration of computer simulation into daily context, prompting mental simulation in people, and influencing their intentions and behaviors, forming the “post-reality feedback loop.” In view of this persuasive socio-technological phenomenon, ethical considerations of designing and developing related immersive experiences are discussed.</jats:p>