DECISIONS IN PIXELS: THE INFLUENCE OF AVATAR IDENTIFICATION ON MORAL DECISION-MAKING IN SINGLE-PLAYER VIDEO GAMES

DECISIONS IN PIXELS: THE INFLUENCE OF AVATAR IDENTIFICATION ON MORAL DECISION-MAKING IN SINGLE-PLAYER VIDEO GAMES

Ennur KARAKUŞ1, Büşra ALPARSLAN2

1Independent Psychologist, Ankara, Türkiye

1Assistant Professor, Ankara Science University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Ankara, Türkiye












Abstract


This study focuses on the profound impact of avatar identification on moral decision-making in games. Research has demonstrated that moral judgments in games can reflect real-life decisions (Weaver & Lewis, 2012), and could be influenced by avatar identification (Allen et al., 2021). The study proposes that players are inclined to act more morally when their avatar resembles themselves, and less morally when their avatar has dehumanized features.


The study consists of three groups based on participants' results from the Moral Identity Picture Scale (MIPS). Although MIPS includes four main roles, this research will focus solely on the morality of actions, considering only the villain and hero roles. Participants were asked to play a game developed (with the help of AI) for this research, with the avatars specifically assigned according to their groups (the normal avatar identification (NAI), the high avatar identification (HAI), and the low avatar identification (LAI)). It is expected that the LAI group will exhibit the most immoral choices, while the NAI group's game scores are expected to correspond with their MIPS results, however, demonstrate less moral behavior than the HAI group. The HAI group is expected to achieve the highest moral scores in the game. Furthermore, it is expected that the LAI group's in-game moral decisions will be more immoral than their MIPS villain scores.


This study offers insight into the complex interplay between digital behavior and real-world ethics. Moreover, the method of this study is an important example of the utilization of digital tools as measurement instruments in the social sciences, and it contributes to the development of artificial intelligence through training it, while also benefiting from it.


Keywords: Avatar Identification, Moral Decision Making, Artificial Intelligence Utilization in Research, Single Player Video Games, Digital Behavior





References


Allen, J. J., & Anderson, C. A. (2021). Does avatar identification make unjustified video game violence more morally consequential? Media Psychology, 24(2), 236–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2019.1683030


Weaver, A. J., & Lewis, N. (2012). Mirrored morality: an exploration of moral choice in video games. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 15(11), 610–614. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2012.0235