Enchanted by Your Surrounding? Measuring the Effects of Immersion and Design of Virtual Environments on Decision-Making

Abstract

Impaired decision-making leads to the inability to distinguish between advantageous and disadvantageous choices. The impairment of a person’s decision-making is a common goal of gambling games. Given the recent trend of gambling using immersive Virtual Reality it is crucial to investigate the effects of both immersion and the virtual environment (VE) on decision-making. In a novel user study, we measured decision-making using three virtual versions of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The versions differed with regard to the degree of immersion and design of the virtual environment. While emotions affect decision-making, we further measured the positive and negative affect of participants. A higher visual angle on a stimulus leads to an increased emotional response. Thus, we kept the visual angle on the Iowa Gambling Task the same between our conditions. Our results revealed no significant impact of immersion or the VE on the IGT. We further found no significant difference between the conditions with regard to positive and negative affect. This suggests that neither the medium used nor the design of the VE causes an impairment of decision-making. However, in combination with a recent study, we provide first evidence that a higher visual angle on the IGT leads to an effect of impairment.

Embodied Gambling—Investigating the Influence of Level of Embodiment, Avatar Appearance, and Virtual Environment Design on an Online VR Slot Machine

“…In our two versions, the visual angle was the same, thus the potentially emotional response remained unchanged in contrast to the first study. This confirms indications found by similar research investigating the influence of immersion by keeping the visual angle on the stimulus the same (Oberdörfer et al, 2021). With regard to the overall effect of the VE design, our results are explainable by the structure of the gambling phase.…”

“…Slot Machine VB is integrated in an open area underwater scenario featuring warm colors, bright light, and plants. This not only reflects the theoretical best characteristics for positive VE design (Oberdörfer et al, 2021), but also fulfills the requirements of a playground environment as discussed in section 2.1. Hence, we refer to this environment as playground environment.…”

“…This VE uses artificial light, provides no access to nature, and features shut blinds, thus creating a confined environment. These characteristics also reflect the negative design space of emotional VE design (Oberdörfer et al, 2021). We refer to this environment as lab environment.…”

“…Recent research shows a higher risk potential of a slot machine when played in VR than on desktop (Heidrich et al, 2019). Also, research revealed a negatively influenced decision-making in a gambling context in VR (Oberdörfer et al, 2020) potentially caused by an increased visual angle on the stimulus (Oberdörfer et al, 2021). The visual angle refers to the size of a particular stimulus in the visual field of a person.…”

“…At the same time, these results raise the need for additional research to 1) determine the true cause for the higher risk potential and to 2) investigate the influence of prominent VR factors. While the former direction requires an investigation of immersion and the effects of a higher visual angle on the stimuli (Oberdörfer et al, 2021), the latter research direction requires the integration of VRspecific factors in virtual gambling environments, such as embodiment, social aspects, and emotional design of the virtual environment (VE).…”