Perceiving artificial social agents

Holtgraves, Thomas; Ross, Stephen J.; Weywadt, Christina R.; Han, T. L.

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2006.02.017

Cited by 99 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Contemporary design of computer characters applies the cues that researchers have suggested provoke automatic social responses. Such indicators include eye‐gazing, biological motion, display of natural facial activity, display of emotions, as well as breathing, natural vocal tones, and display of intelligence (Gratch & Marsella, 2004; Holtgraves, Ross, Weywadt, & Han, 2007; Morrison & Ziemke, 2005; Shapiro, Peña, & Hancock, 2006).…”

Section: The Puzzle Of Enjoyable Virtual Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

It's Okay to Shoot a Character: Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games

Hartmann

Vorderer

2010

Journal of Communication

204

178

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What makes virtual violence enjoyable rather than aversive? Two 2×2 experiments tested the assumption that moral disengagement cues provided by a violent video game's narrative and game play lessen users' guilt and negative affect, which would otherwise undermine players' enjoyment of the game. Experiment 1 found that users' familiarity with the violent game reduced guilt and negative affect, and enhanced enjoyment, whereas opponents' nonhuman outer appearance and blameworthiness had no effect. Experiment 2 found that fighting for a just purpose, perceiving less mayhem, and framing the overall situation as “just a game” or “just an experiment” reduced guilt and negative affect, whereas the distorted portrayal of consequences did not. Effects on game enjoyment were mixed and suggest that moral disengagement cues may both foster and diminish game enjoyment.

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Section: The Puzzle Of Enjoyable Virtual Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

It's Okay to Shoot a Character: Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games

Hartmann

Vorderer

2010

Journal of Communication

204

178

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“…In contemporary first-person shooters, users encounter three-dimensional characters displaying emotions and whose autonomous behavior is driven by artificial intelligence (Morrison & Ziemke, 2003). Computer characters now utilize cues which provoke automatic social responses, including eye-gazing, biological motion, display of natural facial activity, emotions and intelligence, as well as breathing and natural vocal tones (Holtgraves et al, 2007;Morrison & Ziemke, 2005;Shapiro, Peña & Hancock, 2006). It thus seems plausible that users perceive virtual characters differently to chess figures, which provide comparatively artificial representations of social beings (see also McCormick, 2001).…”

Section: Different From Playing Chess: the Moral Significance Of Virtmentioning

confidence: 99%

Just a Game? Unjustified Virtual Violence Produces Guilt in Empathetic Players

Hartmann¹,

Toz²,

Brandon³

2010

Media Psychology

111

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Many avid gamers discount violent conduct in video games as morally insignificant as "it is just a game". However, recent debates among users, regarding video games featuring inappropriate forms of virtual violence, suggest a more complex truth. Two experiments (N 1 = 49, N 2 = 80) examined users' guilt responses in order to explore the moral significance of virtual violence. In both studies, justification of virtual violence and users' trait empathy determined guilt in a structurally similar way to real-world scenarios: people felt guiltier if they engaged in unjustified virtual violence, especially if they were empathetic players. These results show that video games are capable of inducing affective moral responses in users. Accordingly, virtual violence may be considered morally significant action.Keywords: violence, video games, guilt, empathy, justification, morality (Bartle, 2008).Virtual violence may be defined as any behavior intended to do harm to another video game character, who is motivated to avoid the harm-doing (Anderson et al., 2008;Baron & Richardson, 1994). Shooting virtual characters for example, in first-person shooter video games, provides a typical example of virtual violence. While many studies have shown that virtual violence depicted in video games increases aggression in users (Anderson et al., 2010), surprisingly little is known about how users perceive and experience virtual violence themselves (e.g., Scharrer & Leone, 2006, Young & Whitty, 2010.Violent video games are designed for entertainment purposes. Consequently, regular violent game players do not typically feel as though they are doing something wrong when they shoot virtual characters. A frequent argument put forward by avid gamers is that they are well aware that the violence depicted in video games "is not real" (Ladas, 2002). For example, Klimmt, Schmid, Nosper, Vorderer, and Hartmann (2006, see also Whitty, Young, & Goodings, in press) asked avid gamers how they experience virtual violence personally. The majority of players replied that they enjoyed virtual violence as they believe that shooting virtual characters is "just a game" (comparable to chess) and has "nothing to do with killing". This suggests that players maintain a psychologically detached and unaffected stance when playing violent games and that virtual violence is too artificial to be considered morally significant and thus trigger any moral response in the user.RUNNING HEAD: Virtual Violence and Guilt 2 However, Klimmt et al.'s (2006) study suggests that users may also perceive and judge virtual violence in a moral way. In their study, a number of players indicated that they would find it disturbing if they accidentally shot a child, for example, or if painful injuries were depicted in the video game. Related discussion of "inappropriate" virtual violence also exists in the video game community. Many video game-related online blogs and forums recently featured heated debate regarding a mission included in the popular online-role-playing game "...

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“…It is, however, possible to have people chat with the bot and then indicate their perceptions of him. We have conducted several online bot studies designed to examine perceptions of the bot as a function of several conversational variables (Holtgraves, Ross, Weywadt, & Han, 2007).…”

Section: Online Botmentioning

confidence: 99%