Diving in a Virtual Reality: Investigating Technology Acceptance

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) enables the exploration of environments and situations that are otherwise inaccessible, making it particularly valuable for sports like diving. Virtual diving, as part of the metaverse, allows users to discover underwater worlds without the need to physically enter the water, providing benefits such as lower risks, a higher accessibility, and an easy introduction for non-divers. However, the extent to which this technology is accepted as a supplement or complement to conventional diving practice and training remains unclear. Hence, the present study examines the intention to use VR diving applications based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and aims to identify factors that influence the behavioral intention to dive in VR based on a survey with 202 participants. Except positive effects of the perceived ease of use on perceived usefulness, all hypotheses were confirmed in the study. Further, the study reveals that non-divers have a more positive attitude towards the utilization of VR diving applications compared to divers. Our study contributes to the extant literature by extending the TAM to the novel and specific domain of VR diving as a complement and supplement to conventional diving and dive training.