Presentation Type
Poster
Keywords
personality, self-esteem, mood, emotion, avatar, gaming
Department
Psychology
Major
Psychology
Abstract
We explored the potential of avatar-based games as a method of influencing mood. Factors such as avatar customization, participants’ perception of accurate avatar-self representation, self-esteem, and personality were assessed in relation to changes in affect following avatar game play.
With technology dominating the culture of the current day, it’s no surprise that people are becoming increasingly more concerned with their online persona. Most often, this impression is managed via an avatar, which through customization can become an accurate translation of the individual who created it (actual-self) or instead portray the self that he or she wants to be (ideal-self). The self-discrepancy theory and objective self-awareness theory suggest that focusing on the ideal-self through one’s avatar will increase negative affect, while theories of self-presence would lead one to expect an increase in positive affect by creating an ideal-self avatar. To examine the differences between actual- and ideal- self avatars on mood, undergraduate students (N = 81) participated in an experiment, which included a series of assessments in self-esteem using the International Personality Item Pool self-esteem scale, personality using the Big Five Aspect Scale, and mood using the Positive and Negative Affect scale. Participants as a whole experienced a significant decrease in negative affect after game play, regardless of their priming group, suggesting that avatar game play may be a generally effective way to improve mood, t(80) = .4.18, p < .05. There was no significant difference in mood change between groups, but interestingly, a factor that predicted change mood was the participants’ perception of how accurately their avatar represented their actual selves. Students who reported higher degrees of accuracy in avatar self-representation demonstrated an increase in positive affect, F(1,79) = 5.56, p < 0.05, as well as a decrease in negative affect. Analyses revealed that self-esteem and personality (i.e., extraversion-assertiveness) were also significant variables in predicting change in negative mood, F(3,77) = 10.43, p < .001. Individuals who scored low in these areas experienced the strongest decrease in negative affect after game play, providing possible insight into the addictive nature of gaming and its function in negatively reinforcing behavior by minimizing negative mood. Given these results, it may be that what affects mood isn’t necessarily the goal of creating an actual or ideal-self avatar that matters, but the individual’s perception of how accurately that avatar represents oneself; it appears that it is the perception of a high actual-self reflecting avatar that positively impacts the individual’s mood.
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Elizabeth Krumrei Mancuso and Dr. Steven Rouse
Funding Source or Research Program
Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative
Included in
The Virtual Self: Avatar and Individual Determinants of Mood
We explored the potential of avatar-based games as a method of influencing mood. Factors such as avatar customization, participants’ perception of accurate avatar-self representation, self-esteem, and personality were assessed in relation to changes in affect following avatar game play.
With technology dominating the culture of the current day, it’s no surprise that people are becoming increasingly more concerned with their online persona. Most often, this impression is managed via an avatar, which through customization can become an accurate translation of the individual who created it (actual-self) or instead portray the self that he or she wants to be (ideal-self). The self-discrepancy theory and objective self-awareness theory suggest that focusing on the ideal-self through one’s avatar will increase negative affect, while theories of self-presence would lead one to expect an increase in positive affect by creating an ideal-self avatar. To examine the differences between actual- and ideal- self avatars on mood, undergraduate students (N = 81) participated in an experiment, which included a series of assessments in self-esteem using the International Personality Item Pool self-esteem scale, personality using the Big Five Aspect Scale, and mood using the Positive and Negative Affect scale. Participants as a whole experienced a significant decrease in negative affect after game play, regardless of their priming group, suggesting that avatar game play may be a generally effective way to improve mood, t(80) = .4.18, p < .05. There was no significant difference in mood change between groups, but interestingly, a factor that predicted change mood was the participants’ perception of how accurately their avatar represented their actual selves. Students who reported higher degrees of accuracy in avatar self-representation demonstrated an increase in positive affect, F(1,79) = 5.56, p < 0.05, as well as a decrease in negative affect. Analyses revealed that self-esteem and personality (i.e., extraversion-assertiveness) were also significant variables in predicting change in negative mood, F(3,77) = 10.43, p < .001. Individuals who scored low in these areas experienced the strongest decrease in negative affect after game play, providing possible insight into the addictive nature of gaming and its function in negatively reinforcing behavior by minimizing negative mood. Given these results, it may be that what affects mood isn’t necessarily the goal of creating an actual or ideal-self avatar that matters, but the individual’s perception of how accurately that avatar represents oneself; it appears that it is the perception of a high actual-self reflecting avatar that positively impacts the individual’s mood.