Meltdown: Bridging the Perception Gap in Sustainable Food Behaviors Through Immersive VR

Abstract: Climate change education often struggles to bridge the perception gap between everyday actions and their long-term environmental consequences. In response, we developed Meltdown, an immersive virtual reality (VR) escape room that simulates a grocery shopping and food waste management experience to educate university students in Singapore about sustainable consumption. The game emphasizes sustainable food choices and disposal practices, combining interactive elements and narrative feedback to promote behavioral change. Through a user study with 36 university students, we observed statistically significant improvements in participants objective knowledge, perceived confidence, and intention to adopt sustainable behaviors. Our results suggest that experiential VR environments can enhance climate education by making abstract environmental concepts more immediate and personally relevant.