Astronauts (and recently businessmen) often express a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment, after observing the overwhelming beauty of Earth from space. Despite recent attention for this “overview effect”, it is unclear whether experiencing the effect directly impacts pro-environmental behaviour. Using a virtual reality experience, the current research tests in two experimental studies the direct impact of an immersive overview effect experience on both short-term and longer term subsequent pro-environmental behaviours (donating to an environmental NGO, consuming 440 plosone PLOS ONE PLoS One PLOS PMC11135769 11135769 11135769 38809878 10.1371/journal.pone.0299883 Observing the earth from space: Does a virtual reality overview effect experience increase pro-environmental behaviour? status released display-pdf yes is-olf no is-manuscript no is-preprint no is-journal-matter no is-scanned no is-retracted no Received 2023 Jun 16; Accepted 2024 Feb 16; Collection date 2024. Introduction After returning from space, astronauts report how amazed and awestruck they are by Earth’s beauty and fragility after which they report a stronger emotional connection with nature. This experience is referred to as the “overview effect”, which is characterized by powerful emotions and feelings of connectedness with humankind and the planet as a whole [ 1 – 3 ]. Establishing the effectiveness of the overview effect is important as it would allow us to create interventions for businesses and public education campaigns to increase environmental awareness–and action–among children, managers, and society at large. Overview effect The overview effect is a phenomenon first coined by the space philosopher Frank White to describe the psychological experience reported by astronauts as a result of seeing planet Earth from the perspective of space [ 2 ]. The profound emotional experience is triggered when astronauts are Earthgazing and see Earth as a tiny blue ball floating in a vast universe, astounded by its aesthetic beauty and sublimity. The astronauts reported higher positive attitudes toward nature and a greater concern for environmental issues. They also mentioned an increase in their personal First, as mentioned above, directly seeing the Earth from space as a coherent ecosystem leads astronauts to further contemplate about life on the planet and to an increased feeling of connectedness with Earth, including humankind and nature [ 1 , 3 , 11 , 15 ]. We posit that the overview effect experience increases people’s perceived connectedness with nature, or the degree to which people view themselves as part of the surrounding natural environment [ 20 – 22 ]. The most common experience that increases a sense of connectedness with nature, is direct contact with nature [ 23 , 24 ]. The experimental materials, statistical analyses codes, and data of Studies 1 and 2 can be found at OSF ( https://osf.io/5yg72/ ). All implemented experimental conditions are reported and all measured variables are disclosed. Materials In the VR overview effect condition, participants experienced the overview effect through VR, observing the Earth from space. Participants were shown an edit of 7 minutes from the original 30 minutes 180° VR overview effect experience created by EarthscapeVR ® via a head-mounted display (i.e., Pico G2 4K). This video was created based on the NASA blue marble dataset and scientific research on the overview effect [ 1 ]. General discussion “I was not very active in fighting for our environment […] but with the spaceflight experience, this awareness was much more increased and I’m making much more conscious decisions now” (Franz Viehbock, Austria [ 11 ]). In the current research we examined whether experiencing the overview effect, like astronaut Viehbock expressed in the quote above, indeed promotes people’s pro-environmental behaviour. We used VR as a medium to create the experience of seeing the Earth from outer space and investigated its effect on short-term pro-environmental behaviours in the first study. What may be the reasons that we did not find much evidence for the overview effect, especially in view of the anecdotal evidence by those who have been in space along with impressions of museum directors and the reported media? One reason may be that a virtual experience of the overview effect only leads to changes in behaviour that is more immediate and includes simpler changes to one’s personal life, such as donating or using recyclable shopping bags. Changing meat and dairy habits is a much more demanding task and perhaps less easy to be modified after a short VR experience in the lab [ 50 ]. A complementary reason may be that experiencing the overview effect is primarily effective when it is coupled with some type of integration practice such as social sharing. Rather than undergoing an individual experience in a laboratory, astronauts are likely to discuss the overwhelming experiences (e.g., the beauty of the globe, perhaps in combination with its fragility) with other astronauts during the space flight. Thereby the experiences themselves may be magnified, as well as their persistence over time. Such experiences may also be shared among people who visit museums together. It is possible that other features, such as deeper immersion (i.e., longer video, undergoing the experience in a relaxing environment through receiving biofeedback), direct simulation of other astronaut experiences (i.e., simulation of weightlessness or beginning the space travel from home [ 14 ], or social sharing and discussion [ 56 ] are needed for a stronger and more persistent effect. Also, we cannot exclude the possibility that abstract information cannot be sufficiently captured by virtual reality, a tool that is often used to capture specific observations and social interactions (e.g., responses to various threats, such as spiders, or approaches to ethnic minorities [ 57 , 58 ]).