冠状病毒(COVID-19)大流行和最近的经济衰退影响了许多人的心理健康。社交距离的经历给已经报告有抑郁或焦虑症状的人带来了新的困难。在这种情况下,新技术,如沉浸式虚拟现实(VR)视频,可以作为促进互动的有用工具,情感分享,和虚拟环境中的信息处理。在这项研究中,研究人员旨在通过关注大流行期间360度VR视频的使用和满足来丰富信息处理文献。通过对美国1422名参与者的调查研究和结构方程模型进行数据分析,这项研究发现五种类型的满足,包括功利主义(即,导航),享乐主义(即,enjoyment),感性(即,现实主义),社会(即,社区),和象征性的(即,coolness),极大地激励用户使用此类身临其境的视频。同时,数据表明,这五种类型的满足会影响用户对虚拟内容的认知参与。此外,这种VR参与促进了用户对沉浸式视频的积极态度,并继续使用它们。这些发现也为COVID-19的全球复苏提供了实际意义。
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and recent economic recession have been impacting many people\'s mental health. The experience of social distancing created new hardships for people who already reported symptoms of depression or anxiety. In these circumstances, new technologies, such as immersive virtual reality (VR) videos, could serve as useful tools for facilitating interactions, emotional sharing, and information processing within a virtual environment. In this study, researchers aimed to enrich the information processing literature by focusing on the uses and gratifications of 360-degree VR videos during the pandemic. Through employing survey research with 1422 participants located in the U.S. and structural equation modeling for data analysis, this study found that five types of gratification, including utilitarian (i.e., navigation), hedonic (i.e., enjoyment), sensual (i.e., realism), social (i.e., community), and symbolic (i.e., coolness), significantly motivated users to use such immersive videos. Simultaneously, data demonstrated that these five types of gratification could influence users\' cognitive engagement with virtual content. In addition, such VR engagement facilitated users\' positive attitudes toward immersive videos and continued usage of them. The findings provided practical implications for COVID-19 global recovery as well.