To Kill or Not to Kill – An experimental test of moral Decision-Making in gaming

in Entertainment Computing (2022)

Commercial video game titles with meaningful and morally relevant storylines are becoming increasingly popular and an intensely researched topic for entertainment scholars. In line with this research, the ... [more ▼]

Commercial video game titles with meaningful and morally relevant storylines are becoming increasingly popular and an intensely researched topic for entertainment scholars. In line with this research, the current study investigates behavioral, emotional, and personality patterns of moral decision-making in gaming with a special emphasis on selected contextual factors. In the current laboratory experiment, a total of N = 101 participants played four chapters of Detroit: Become Human for approx. 55 min. A maximum of 13 moral decisions had to be made either under time pressure or not. Before playing, participants were assigned to one of three conditions (i.e., playing morally vs. immorally framed character vs. no framing/control condition). As expected, players generally preferred to act morally regardless of character framing. Time pressure further increased the proportion of moral (vs. immoral) decision-making. Our results underline that moral decision-making is dependent on specific contexts and that morality theories can be applied to virtual gaming scenarios. [less ▲]

Moral minds in gaming – A quantitative case study of moral decisions in Detroit: Become Human

in Journal of Media Psychology (2022)

Games including meaningful narratives and moral decisions have become increasingly popular. This case study examines (a) the prevalence of morality and moral foundations, (b) player decisions when ... [more ▼]

Games including meaningful narratives and moral decisions have become increasingly popular. This case study examines (a) the prevalence of morality and moral foundations, (b) player decisions when encountering moral options, and (c) the influence of contextual factors (i.e., time pressure, played avatar, and humanness of nonplayable characters) on moral decision-making in the popular video game Detroit: Become Human. Based on extensive coding of available world statistics we identified 73.21% morally relevant (vs. morally irrelevant) decisions in the game with a high prevalence for harm- and authority-related situations. Although players had an overall tendency to engage in moral behavior, they were more likely to act “good” when under time pressure and if nonhuman characters were involved. Our findings are discussed with regard to common theories of morality. Results support the notion that prior theoretical assumptions may be successfully mapped onto top-selling video games. [less ▲]

To kill or not to kill - Behavioral, physiological and personality markers of moral decision-making in video games

Scientific Conference (2021, September)

Analgesic effects of interacting with a VR game and associated psychophysiological responses

Scientific Conference (2021, June)

Introduction: Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be an effective tool for pain distraction by redirecting attention away from painful stimuli. Although VR therapy has been successfully implemented in ... [more ▼]

Introduction: Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be an effective tool for pain distraction by redirecting attention away from painful stimuli. Although VR therapy has been successfully implemented in clinical settings, little is known about the underlying factors that modulate analgesic responses, such as cognitive load, executive functions and VR or gaming experience. Methods: A final sample of N = 90 healthy participants played the VR game Subnautica in a high and a low cognitive load condition. In the low load condition, participants explored the VR along a predefined route. In the high load condition, participants had to additionally memorize eight digits presented along the route. Pain heat thresholds as well as psychophysiological measures (ECG, EDA) were recorded during a non-interactive resting state period prior to playing as well as during the two VR sessions. Furthermore, participants completed questionnaires (e.g., pain attitude) and executive functioning tasks (e.g., go/nogo task). Results: Pain thresholds did not differ for high versus low demand. However, participants achieved higher threshold for the interactive playing sessions compared to the resting state period. Psychophysiological markers (e.g., HRV) indicate lower sympathetic activity during the resting state compared to the playing session (resting state < low load < high load). Moreover, pain catastrophizing and fear of pain were significant predictors of pain thresholds. Discussion: Results shed light on the role of inter-individual differences and psychophysiological markers of VR-based pain sensitivity and indicate factors that facilitate/impair distraction effects. This may have important implication for the use of VR-therapy. [less ▲]

Virtual reality gaming for pain distraction - Investigation of attentional and psychophysiological effects

Scientific Conference (2021, May)

Virtual reality has been shown to be a powerful method to divert attention away from pain (Malloy & Milling, 2010) and has been used successfully to temporally relieve patients from pain in clinical ... [more ▼]

Virtual reality has been shown to be a powerful method to divert attention away from pain (Malloy & Milling, 2010) and has been used successfully to temporally relieve patients from pain in clinical settings. However, little is known about the underlying attentional processes involved in pain processing in virtual reality. Therefore, as one of the first studies, this project investigates the role of especially cognitive factors influencing distraction from pain. N = 90 healthy participants played the video game Subnautica in two virtual reality conditions (high vs. low cognitive load). To assess the distraction effect, pain thresholds and psychophysiological measures were assessed during play. Additionally, executive functions and self-reported measures on, e.g., presence, simulation sickness and pain-related subjects were assessed. Results suggest that interactive virtual reality games are a potential tool to alter pain processing, regardless of the level of cognitive load. [less ▲]

Corona and the Media

in Mein, Georg; Pause, Johannes (Eds.) Self and Society in the Corona Crisis (2020)

Understanding Moral Decision-Making in Video Games: A Focus Group Study

Scientific Conference (2020, May)

Moral dilemmas have become increasingly popular in video games, although it is still widely unknown why players might find them pleasurable, how they process dilemmas, and which factors affect the ... [more ▼]

Moral dilemmas have become increasingly popular in video games, although it is still widely unknown why players might find them pleasurable, how they process dilemmas, and which factors affect the processing. Therefore, three different focus groups sessions with expert gamers (N = 16) were conducted. Gamers’ expressions of their experience with meaningful and morally relevant game situations were grouped for relevant topics. Topics are supported by direct quotations from participants of discussion groups, referring to up-to-date video game titles and presented together with respective theoretical assumptions. Results show that besides the game-defining theme of interactivity, statements can be grouped broadly into factors that describe why players engage or disengage in the first place (motivation) and factors that shape the moral interaction itself (influencing factors). In summary, our findings support the notion that moral-decision making in video games is a dynamic interplay between several game and user-dependent variables. Findings provide insights into players’ processing of moral dilemmas in video games, which also offers promising suggestions for future research using experimental setups. [less ▲]

Investigating the role of individual differences in the analgesic response to a virtual reality game: An exploratory analysis (accepted submission, but symposium was cancelled due to COVID-19)

Scientific Conference (2020, March)

Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be a powerful method of redirecting attention away from pain and is increasingly used in clinical settings as a therapeutic tool for pain treatment. Yet, little is ... [more ▼]

Virtual reality (VR) has been shown to be a powerful method of redirecting attention away from pain and is increasingly used in clinical settings as a therapeutic tool for pain treatment. Yet, little is known about the underlying factors that modulate the size of the analgesic response to a VR game, such as task difficulty and inter-individual differences in pain attitude, emotion regulation habits, executive functions and virtual reality experience. Methods: 101 healthy participants played two versions of the VR game Subnautica, differing in cognitive load (low load vs. high load). In the low load condition, participants navigated along a predefined route. In the high load condition, participants additionally memorized a series of single digits presented along the route. Pain heat thresholds as well as psychophysiological measures (ECG, EDA) were recorded during a resting state period prior to, as well as during, the two VR playing sessions. In addition, participants completed several psychological questionnaires and different executive functioning tasks (Corsi block tapping task, flanker task, go/nogo task) prior to the VR sessions. Results: Preliminary results of a subgroup (N = 66) of the total sample revealed that pain thresholds were significantly higher for the VR playing sessions when compared to the resting state period, with a trend of a higher threshold for the high load condition. Moreover, pain catastrophizing and fear of pain were significant predictors of pain threshold measurements. The complete results will be presented at the symposium. Discussion: Results could shed light on the role of inter-individual differences on the efficacy of VR-based distraction from pain, and potentially elucidate factors that render an individual more likely to benefit from VR as a pain-relieving tool. This may have important consequences for the use of VR as a therapeutic treatment for pain patients. [less ▲]

Moral decision-making in video games: A focus group study on player perceptions

in Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies (2020)

Moral dilemmas have become increasingly popular in single player video games, although it is still widely unknown why players find them pleasurable, how they process dilemmas, and which variables affect ... [more ▼]

Moral dilemmas have become increasingly popular in single player video games, although it is still widely unknown why players find them pleasurable, how they process dilemmas, and which variables affect the processing. Therefore, three different focus groups sessions with experienced players (N = 16) were conducted. Player perceptions of meaningful and morally relevant decision situations in video games were grouped for topics and contextualized with theoretical background (e.g., moral disengagement theory). Our findings support the notion that moral decision-making in video games is a dynamic interplay between game and user-dependent variables. Results show that in addition to interactivity, which reflects the inherent property of video games, statements can be broadly grouped into factors that describe player motivation (i.e., why they morally engage or disengage) and influencing factors that shape the moral interaction itself. In summary, the present findings provide insights into players' processing of moral dilemmas in video games. [less ▲]

Male vs female gamers: Testing the stereotype threat effect in video gaming

Scientific Conference (2019, September 17)

Stereotype threat (ST), defined as the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s own group, has been demonstrated in various social contexts. Regarding video games, for example, informing ... [more ▼]

Stereotype threat (ST), defined as the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s own group, has been demonstrated in various social contexts. Regarding video games, for example, informing female participants that men would outperform women in gaming leads to gender differences in performance. To date, however, these studies have not looked into the mechanisms of this ST effect in gaming. In two lab studies (N=186), some participants were confronted with ST-related information before playing a video game. In Study 1, half of the participants read a bogus article confirming the “standard” gender stereotype (“men outperform women”). In Study 2, a reverse stereotype was presented to half of the participants (“women have outpaced men in some game genres”). In contrast to hypotheses, both studies failed to show the expected significant interaction effect of gender and ST condition on performance, although female participants confronted with the “standard” gender stereotype reported greater frustration in Study 1, for example. In sum, results indicate a complex relationship between gender, social identity, experience with the game genre, and behavior. Identifying oneself as a gamer and being experienced in a particular game genre were found to be better performance predictors than reading stereotype threatening information. [less ▲]