Players' moral decisions in virtual worlds: Morality in video games

From complex multi-players to casual gaming: video games are the most common virtual environment for entertainment that younger generations spend a significant time in. Although early game titles already featured morality-related topics, implementing meaningful eudaimonic playing based on moral decision making has become increasingly popular. Unfortunately, scientific analyses of game-related moral decisions mostly revolve around the effects of players engaging in virtual violence, leading to ongoing heated debates in academia and the general public (e.g., Anderson et al., 2010; Ferguson, 2007). To date, however, only few studies have tried to disentangle the moral aspects of video games from virtual violence (e.g., Joeckel, Bowman, & Dogruel, 2012). The present chapter provides an overview on both established and novel theories on psychological processing of moral decision making in virtual worlds in line with cutting-edge game examples. These theories aim at explaining how games can elicit moral processing as well as the factors that modulate these processes once the player is morally engaged. Based on i.a. aspects of the theory of presence (Biocca, Harms, & Burgoon, 2003; Tamborini & Skalski, 2006), moral disengagement (Bandura, 2002; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010) and a dual process model of moral judgement (Greene, Sommerville, Nystrom, Darley, & Cohen, 2001; Gubbins & Byrne, 2014; Haidt, 2001), a new model is proposed. Furthermore, individual characteristics such as playing experience, player motivation and moral salience according to the moral foundations theory (Haidt & Joseph, 2008; Tamborini, 2011) are integrated in the model.