ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Environmental Psychology
A Study on the Effects of Virtual Gaming Environment Stimuli on Adolescents' Environmental Awareness and Behavior: The Mediating Role of Environmental Trust
Provisionally accepted
- Donghua University, Shanghai, China
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Purpose: Motivating pro-environmental behavior among adolescents remains an ongoing challenge, and commercial digital games offer an emerging avenue to address this. Despite the immense potential of games, the underlying psychological mechanisms that translate virtual environmental stimuli into real-world actions remain poorly understood. This study constructs a model to examine these conversion pathways, thereby providing clear insights and empirical support for designing effective environmental interventions using mainstream gaming platforms. Methods: Based on questionnaire data from 2,279 Chinese adolescent gamers of the popular title Honor of Kings, this study constructs a parallel chain mediation model following the Stimulus-Organism-Response framework. Through Pearson correlation analysis, Fornell-Larcker tests, and the Bootstrap method using the SPSS PROCESS macro (Model 6), we systematically examined the causal pathways from game stimuli to pro-environmental behavior. This validated a chained mediation mechanism centered on Game Appraisal and Emotional Response, Pro-Environmental Trust, and Pro-Environmental Intention. Results: The findings clearly reveal a complete psychological conversion pathway. First, in-game environmental stimuli, such as eco-themed Character Outfits and Environmental Game Mechanisms, significantly and positively predict players' Game Appraisal and Emotional Response. This emotional and cognitive engagement, in turn, robustly fosters Pro-Environmental Trust in the game platform. The analysis confirms that this trust acts as a pivotal mediator, significantly influencing two distinct behavioral intentions: the Intention to Purchase Environmental Products and the Intention to Spread Environmental Messages on social media. Ultimately, both of these intentions were found to be significant positive predictors of final Pro-Environmental Behavior. Conclusions: This study confirms that Pro-Environmental Trust serves as a crucial psychological bridge converting players' Game Appraisal and Emotional Response into real-world pro-environmental intentions and ultimately, Pro-Environmental Behavior. By elucidating this conversion mechanism, the research contributes to existing literature. This finding provides clear implications for game developers and policymakers: to effectively leverage games for environmental promotion, fostering genuine player trust through authentic environmental initiatives is equally important as designing immersive content.
Keywords: Virtual games, environmental trust, Adolescent Psychology, Eco-friendly behavior, S-O-R theory
Received: 30 Sep 2025; Accepted: 04 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hu, Wu and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Le Wang, le.wang.le@qq.com
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