# Predictors of Engagement in Virtual Reality Storytelling Environments about Migration
## 2 Literature Review and Related Work
### Storytelling and Migration  
Storytelling is the art of telling a story. The National Story Telling Network (2023) and authors like [PERSON] [28] has described storytelling as an interactive art of using words to create narratives. [PERSON] [29] describes storytelling as a basic and ancient way to communicate things to each other, a way to transmit ideas through the use of stories while \"including the signaling of an intention to share information\".  
Another definition of storytelling includes a role related to our own recognition and personal understanding. [PERSON] [30] introduces storytelling \"as an act which contributes to producing the foundations of our lives as it helps us to comprehend the world\" based on our own interpretation: \"Individuals merge with the world through their narratives.\" Those stories represent a series of actions that a creator/narrator uses \"to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener's imagination\" [31].  
However, storytelling goes beyond our individual recognition through stories and plays an important role at a community level. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [32] emphasize that narrative approaches allow the readers to increase the emotional release and learn from that particular experience. This implies that we could use storytelling as a media to \"promote  
Figure 1: Engagement and VR—Documents by year—Scopus database.  
discovery, exploration and re-imagination\" that derives in \"subsequent learning\" [29]. [PERSON] et al. [33] argue that storytelling is a pedagogical strategy to change perceptions of a topic by people \"as they'make it real', identify, and empathize with the characters and story on a personal level.\"  
Digital storytelling has been applied in research on migration as an alternative mechanism to tell the stories of migrants using different formats. For instance, [PERSON] [34] did a workshop in which some migrants in Ireland took a central role in collaboratively presenting their stories through storytelling using images. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [35] point out that storytelling can be a mechanism to put migrants at the center of discussion rather than using numbers to talk about migration. Storytelling can also contribute to changing the dominant narratives about migration by learning from the creation of stories. In the field of education, storytelling has been applied in migration education. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [36] state that digital storytelling in the classroom is a good method so that migrants can be agents of their own representation and have the right to speak about themselves. Digital storytelling has also been used to promote the sexual health and well-being of migrants as reported in the literature review by [PERSON] et al. [37]. Nonetheless, according to the study by [PERSON] et al. [38], digital storytelling as a learning activity about migration limits diversity in students' knowledge and experiences about migration as a result of the introduction of some standardization drivers. These standardization drivers are related to some prejudices and political influence.  
Based on the review of the literature, there is a scarcity of research on the predictors of engagement when participants use VR storytelling environments. In that regard, in this study, we fill part of the gap by investigating some of the predictors of engagement in VR storytelling environments.