Special Issue Sociology

Development of Gamified VR Content to Enhance Indoor Disaster Preparedness and Risk Perception

In Japan, natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods are frequent. However, many citizens view such disasters as impersonal events rather than imminent personal threats. This has led to low participation rates in local disaster drills and poor retention of disaster prevention knowledge, posing significant challenges. Against this backdrop, existing research has reported the effectiveness of disaster prevention education utilizing gamification and VR. However, when applying existing approaches to VR-based disaster prevention education, it is necessary to consider the potential psychological burden of highly realistic depictions, opportunities for self-directed hazard identification, and replay-oriented design. Therefore, this study developed VR disaster prevention learning content incorporating gamification. The content was designed to foster a sense of crisis about disasters and interest in replay while considering psychological burden. The proposed content employs a "spot-the-difference" game mechanic, requiring users to actively identify deficiencies in indoor disaster preparedness measures. As a proof of concept, a questionnaire survey was conducted immediately after the experience with 123 participants, including high school students. Many participants reported an increased sense of crisis regarding disasters and an intention to replay the game.

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Special Issue Sociology

Development of a VR Vertical Evacuation Simulator for Schools Integrating Conformity Bias for Disaster Preparedness Education

In recent years, Japan has experienced frequent water-related disasters, including earthquake-induced tsunamis and flooding caused by heavy rainfall, increasing the importance of disaster preparedness measures. However, participation in disaster drills remains low, indicating that many citizens do not regard disaster preparedness as a personally relevant issue. In addition, conventional drills often require participants to follow predetermined routes and therefore make it difficult to experience unexpected situations, such as blocked routes or collective behavior during panic. Although disaster simulators using virtual reality (VR) have advanced, few studies have focused on indoor flooding while also considering the influence of other evacuees’ incorrect evacuation behavior. This study therefore developed a simulator that enables users to experience vertical evacuation during indoor flooding in school facilities, which are often designated as evacuation sites. By placing non-player characters (NPCs) that exhibit incorrect evacuation behavior, the simulator makes it possible to examine how the behavior of others may affect participants’ evacuation decisions, subjective difficulty, and sense of urgency. An empirical evaluation clarified the simulator’s potential value for disaster preparedness education and awareness raising, as well as issues requiring further verification.

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