Exploring the Role of Transportation and Narrative Persuasion in Historical Virtual Reality from a Democratic Education Perspective

Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly used in history education to enable immersive engagement with the past. While such applications may stimulate interest and emotional involvement, concerns have been raised about their potential to hinder critical reflection and foster uncritical acceptance of story-consistent beliefs. Drawing on the Transportation-Imagery-Model, the present experimental study (N = 160) investigates how narrative immersion (transportation) in the historical VR application Anne Frank House VR influences users’ emotional responses, knowledge transfer, and the endorsement of story-related political beliefs. Special attention is given to the impact of users’ political orientation. Findings show that emotional engagement and transportation significantly promote political beliefs consistent with the VR narrative (e.g., support for refugees), but are not associated with increases in factual or perceived knowledge. These results highlight both the persuasivepotential and the educational limitations of VR in history education. While VR may not enhance knowledge transfer per se, it may effectively foster engagement on socially and politically relevant topics.