Motivational Profiles and Interaction Patterns in Cultural Heritage Virtual Reality: A Latent Profile Analysis Grounded in Self-Determination Theory

Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly used to support cultural heritage experiences, yet most studies still focus on technology and storytelling, paying relatively little attention to how different types of motivation relate to users’ interactive behaviors. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Organismic Integration Theory (OIT), this study identifies latent motivational types among Cultural Heritage Virtual Reality (CH-VR) users and examines their antecedents and interaction patterns. Using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) on survey data from 544 users, it reveals five user types differing in autonomy: autonomously driven, externally controlled, mixed-motivation, responsibility-identified, and amotivated. The results indicate that users’ levels of cultural knowledge and cultural identity significantly predict profile membership. Moreover, autonomously driven users exhibit higher levels of participatory interaction, cognitive interaction, perceptual interaction and social interaction than externally controlled and amotivated users. These findings extend the application of self-determination theory to VR-based cultural heritage contexts and inform the design of personalized CH-VR experiences.