Augmented reality and behavioural change: a technology acceptance study

Littering behaviour is a global issue affecting most countries, regardless of their development status. Augmented reality (AR) shows a promising contribution in different fields. However, despite the wider applications of AR in different areas such as cultural heritage and shopping, acceptance studies of augmented reality applications with environmental awareness are still rare. This empirical study will contribute to the investigation of users' acceptance of AR within the environmental context. A number of behavioural theories have been utilised in this research, such as the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A mixed methods research was applied to determine the correlations between personality traits, anti-littering behaviour, and the acceptance or non-acceptance of the environmental awareness augmented reality app (EVA), as measured by C-TAM-TPB. Additionally, a gamification method has been utilised by this research; therefore, perceived enjoyment factor has also been examined by this research. We conducted three sets of experiments for each of the case studies in Australia and Saudi Arabia. The experiments were employed to investigate three different versions of the mobile app (EVA) to determine which version would be the best fit for the proposed model. EVA 1, a standard mobile application (control variable), was examined and compared with two other treatment variables, EVA 2 (AR mobile app) and EVA 3 (AR mobile app plus AR game). This study states that AR, with or without gaming, was more effective than a standard mobile application in effecting a behavioural change towards anti-littering behaviour. Gamification elements were found slightly more effective than AR only in the app we tested, however this require further testing with more enjoyable game elements. A moderate to great deal of change in littering behavioural intention have been observed most in the case of the AR Game compared to the other two. Based on their experiences, the participants nominated AR Games, AR Videos, and AR images as the top three approaches to use for behaviour change, with respect to their effectiveness.