A recent study explores how Augmented Reality (AR) technology influences museum visitors' pro-environmental behavior, using the normative activation theory (NAT) as a framework.

The research highlights that NAT links awareness of consequences, personal responsibility, and personal norms to behavioral intentions, emphasizing their role in promoting sustainable actions within museum settings.

The research addresses a gap in existing literature, which has mainly focused on AR/VR design and visitor experience, but has overlooked how these technologies influence personal norms related to environmental behavior.

The proposed causal chains suggest that immersive experiences influence attitudes, awareness of consequences affects perceived responsibility, and both factors together shape personal norms and behavioral intentions.

It hypothesizes that higher levels of AR presence and immersive experiences can positively shape visitors' attitudes towards environmental behavior, ultimately encouraging them to act more sustainably.

This study aims to validate these relationships through data collected from an AR project at the Marine Animal Museum in Guangdong, China, and introduces a new model combining NAT with the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) theory.

AR and Virtual Reality (VR) are transforming museum experiences by improving educational engagement and offering innovative ways to explore cultural heritage, such as virtual restorations.