Exploring Micromobility Users’ Prosocial Behavior with Ride Feedback in Immersive Virtual Environments

As urban societies adopt new micromobility solutions like e-scooters and delivery robots, they create new behavioral dynamics among road users which remains not fully understood yet. Toward harmonious interactions among various road users, it is important to promote prosocial behavior in such hybrid mobility society. To inform development of such urban transportation solutions, we conducted a human subject experiment in an immersive virtual environment and examined how ride feedback and type of road users (human vs. robot) affect e-scooter riders’ perception and behavior. Participants found the ride feedback fair and useful when it presents acknowledgment and empathy. The ride feedback gathered higher acceptance among participants who interacted with humans as compared to those who interacted with robots. The results also reveal that the presence of feedback significantly increased the e-scooter riders’ engagements in prosocial behavior. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the interplay between feedback content, prosocial behavior, and the type of beneficiary, offering implications for the design of ride feedback to promote prosocial behavior in hybrid mobility society.