The world through the Gamepad: how videogames contribute to shaping players beliefs

Last registered on July 19, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
The world through the Gamepad: how videogames contribute to shaping players beliefs
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011391
Initial registration date
May 12, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
May 17, 2023, 2:44 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated
July 19, 2023, 4:10 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country
Italy
Region
Milan

Primary Investigator

Name
Giacomo Lauritano
Affiliation
Università degli studi di Milano-Bicocca
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2023-05-15
End date
2023-07-16
Keywords
Other
Additional Keywords
Cultural Sociology; Game Studies; Machine-Human Interaction
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The trial constitutes the second part of my PhD Thesis research. The thesis tries to verify wether Cultivation Theory, a classical theoretical framework for the analysis of television effects on audience, may be considered a valid approach for the analysis of videogame's effects on player beliefs. The study is relevent both for the worlds of Games Studies and Human-Machine Interaction in which the effect of interactive media on the audience have always been a heavily debated topic.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Lauritano, Giacomo. 2023. "The world through the Gamepad: how videogames contribute to shaping players beliefs." AEA RCT Registry. July 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11391-2.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention will consist in a brief session of gameplay on Playstation 5. It will last about 30-40 minutes.
Intervention Start Date
2023-05-21
Intervention End Date
2023-07-16

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
The key outcome is the assessment of the level of moral disengagement fo the participants. With moral disengagment I mean how much the experienced videogames manage to shift the player moral perspective towards the victims of the mediated violence represented. Since we are all socialized to the idea that violence is wrong, media like movies or videogames need to disengage the audience from the moral consequences of violent acts in order to present violence as fun and enjoyable.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
The key outcome variables will be one or more indexes created with factor analysis starting from the items of a Likert scale which measures moral disengagement. The scale is a modified version of the "Mechanisms of moral disengagement" scale from Bandura et al. (1995).

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
The secondat outcome is the effect of videogames on gender representation. Videogames have long story of representing women in a stereotyped and narratively marginalized way. I want to analyze wether these representations influence players's beliefs
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
The secondary outcome will be based on one or more indexes created with factor analysis starting from the items of a Likert scale which measures gender representations. The scale is a modified version of the gender roles scale from Cota et al. (1991).

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The study will be a randomized controlled trial. it will be composed of two main steps: a pre-trial questionaire will be compiled to participants who will be divided randomly but according to relevant characteristics in treatment and control group. Then, each participant will try alone one of two possible videogames depending on their group membership. After this treatment each participant will compile a second questionaire and then he or she will be debriefed and will receive a small compensation for the participation.
Experimental Design Details
The study will be a randomized controlled trial. it will be composed of two main steps: a pre-trial questionaire will be compiled to participants who will be divided according to their gender and their gaming habits in 4 groups (interesecating Male/Female or other and heavy gamer/light gamer). The groups will be further stratified according to low or high levels of moral disengagement (the mian outcome) shown in the first survey. The result of this stratification will create two comparable groups which will be treatment and control group. The memebrs of the treatment group will play excerpts of "The Last of Us", a game featuring violence. The excerpts wil be the initial sequence and a fighting sequence successive to the death of an important character. The control group will play "Journey" a relaxing game with no violent content in which a genderless robed figure explores a sunny desert. Regardless of the group the experience should last about 30-40 minutes. After this treatment each participant will compile a second questionaire and then he or she will be debriefed and will receive a small compensation for the participation.
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by computer
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
0
Sample size: planned number of observations
80 observations
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
I planned to have two groups (treatment and control) of 40 people each for a total of 80 participants
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
July 13, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
July 13, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
87 people completed both surveys
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials