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Researchers at University of Tsukuba used virtual reality (VR) to demonstrate that pedestrians' behaviors, such as stopping or turning their heads, can induce gaze following (the "honey-pot effect") among individuals walking behind them, thereby substantially increasing awareness of nearby public displays. However, these socially driven, momentary glances rarely result in meaningful comprehension of display content. Moreover, no cultural differences were observed in these responses among the 18 participants studied.

Tsukuba, Japan—Digital billboards in urban environments are widely used to disseminate information; however, many pedestrians pass by without noticing them. In contrast, when an individual stops to attend to a display, nearby pedestrians often follow suit by directing their attention toward it. This socially mediated response may offer a practical means of increasing the visibility and reach of information presented on public screens.

In this study, researchers recreated a realistic urban environment using virtual reality (VR) and examined how the behavior of an avatar (a virtual pedestrian) walking ahead influenced the actions of a participant walking behind. The avatar exhibited one of three responses to a non-interactive public display showing static image advertisements: walking past without looking, briefly glancing at the display, or approaching and stopping in front of it.

The results showed that when the avatar approached and stopped at the display—a clear and intentional signal of attention—participants were highly likely to look at the display as well. A comparable effect was observed when an oncoming pedestrian turned toward the display, indicating that both gaze direction and body orientation can effectively propagate awareness among nearby individuals.

However, the study also found that even when pedestrians noticed a display, the brief viewing time available while walking was generally insufficient for recalling its content. Accordingly, advertisement recall accuracy remained low across all conditions, with no significant differences among the tested behavior types. Statistical analyses further revealed no significant differences between participants from different cultural backgrounds (German vs. Japanese) in susceptibility to attentional diversion.

Overall, this research demonstrates that VR can safely and precisely reproduce real-world pedestrian behavior, enabling systematic evaluation of how public displays are noticed in everyday settings. The findings may inform the design of more effective advertising and urban signage and could also guide strategies for information presentation in VR environments, where avatar-mediated attention cues may exert similar effects.

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This research has been funded by the Volkswagenstiftung for the project "Distance-Keeping: Influence of the StreetScape (Dist-KISS)" in the call "Corona Crisis and Beyond—Perspectives for Science, Scholarship and Society." Besides, this work is also supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI under Grant JP21J20397, 24H00892, and JSPS Overseas Challenge Program for Young Researchers.

Original Paper

Title of original paper:

Honey-pot effect on pedestrian attention to public displays in a virtual environment: head turns, walking past, and direct approaches

Journal:

Frontiers in Virtual Reality

DOI:

10.3389/frvir.2025.1714725

Correspondence

Associate Professor ZEMPO Keiichi
Institute of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Tsukuba

Related Link

Institute of Systems and Information Engineering