Preliminary Study and Main Experiments Procedure

This chapter reports the preparatory work and procedures underpinning the empirical studies. A preliminary qualitative study (two online focus groups) validated the packaging manipulations (structural, haptic, visual), assessed realism and relevance, and identified minor refinements to shapes, graphics, and color palette. A pilot then verified protocol timing, questionnaires, and manipulation checks before the main experiments. For the laboratory experiments, participants were randomly assigned to Virtual Reality (VR) or physical reality and evaluated one package at a time. The VR setup used an Oculus Quest 2 HMD with Leap Motion hand tracking and ray-traced lighting. A brief training task with an orange cube familiarized participants with the VR environment. Stimuli development produced seven physical milk-pack versions and seven matched VR counterparts. Procedures were harmonized across the two conditions, presentation order was randomized, and the same post-trial questionnaire captured six dependent variables. Analytically, each study used a mixed ANOVA, with repeated measures for the manipulations and a between-subjects design for the environments (VR vs physical reality).