Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of avatar sex, salience of avatar sex, and player sex-type on less conscious embodied emotional arousal and valence vs. consciously perceived emotional arousal and valence elicited by a gaming experience. The experiment conducted a 2 avatar sex (female × male) × 2 salience of avatar sex (high × low) × 2 player sex-type (sex-typed × non-sex-typed) mixed model factorial design. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two gameplay conditions (high-salience male and female avatar or low-salience male and female avatar) and then played two 15-min sessions of a video game—one session playing the game as a male avatar and one session playing the game as a female avatar. The order in which participants played as either a male or female avatar was randomized. Psychophysiological indicators of arousal (skin conductance) and valence (facial electromyography) were recorded during gameplay. Self-report measures of arousal and valence were obtained immediately after each 15-min session of gameplay. Data analysis tested hypotheses concerning the effects of avatar sex, salience of avatar sex, and player sex-type separately on real-time embodied variation in arousal and valence as revealed through physiological indicators and conscious perception of arousal and valence obtained through self-report measures.
Highlights
According to the Entertainment Software Association (2019) 65% of American adults play video games and 75% of American households have at least one member who plays video games
The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of the sex of the avatar (SOTA), salience of the SOTA, and participant sex-type on less conscious embodied emotional arousal and valence and consciously perceived emotional arousal and valence
It was predicted that the SOTA would have a threshold effect on conscious and less conscious arousal and valence such that when the salience of the SOTA was low the SOTA would have no significant effect on individuals’ conscious and less conscious emotional arousal and valence, regardless of their sex-type (H1, H4); but, when the salience of the SOTA was high the SOTA would have significant effects on individuals’ conscious and less conscious emotional arousal and valence based on their sex-type (H2, H3, H5, RQ1)
Summary
According to the Entertainment Software Association (2019) 65% of American adults play video games and 75% of American households have at least one member who plays video games. The number of men and women playing video games is roughly equivalent and the average gamer is 33 years old (Entertainment Software Association, 2019). Video games have become a prevalent and popular form of entertainment over the last three decades, enjoyed by adults and children of all sexes and genders. The entertainment experience of playing video games, like most forms of entertainment media, is rooted in emotional processes, like emotional arousal (the strength of the emotion) and emotional valence (whether the emotion is positive or negative; Bradley and Lang, 2007; Potter and Bolls, 2012), and responses (Lang, 2009; Fisher et al, 2018; Raney and Bryant, 2019). Previous research suggests that emotional processes and responses elicited by features of video games
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