Embodied gambling — investigating the influence of level of embodiment, avatar appearance, and virtual environment design on an online VR slot machine

Please always quote using this URN: urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284662
  • Slot machines are one of the most played games by players suffering from gambling disorder. New technologies like immersive Virtual Reality (VR) offer more possibilities to exploit erroneous beliefs in the context of gambling. Recent research indicates a higher risk potential when playing a slot machine in VR than on desktop. To continue this investigation, we evaluate the effects of providing different degrees of embodiment, i.e., minimal and full embodiment. The avatars used for the full embodiment further differ in their appearance, i.e.,Slot machines are one of the most played games by players suffering from gambling disorder. New technologies like immersive Virtual Reality (VR) offer more possibilities to exploit erroneous beliefs in the context of gambling. Recent research indicates a higher risk potential when playing a slot machine in VR than on desktop. To continue this investigation, we evaluate the effects of providing different degrees of embodiment, i.e., minimal and full embodiment. The avatars used for the full embodiment further differ in their appearance, i.e., they elicit a high or a low socio-economic status. The virtual environment (VE) design can cause a potential influence on the overall gambling behavior. Thus, we also embed the slot machine in two different VEs that differ in their emotional design: a colorful underwater playground environment and a virtual counterpart of our lab. These design considerations resulted in four different versions of the same VR slot machine: 1) full embodiment with high socio-economic status, 2) full embodiment with low socio-economic status, 3) minimal embodiment playground VE, and 4) minimal embodiment laboratory VE. Both full embodiment versions also used the playground VE. We determine the risk potential by logging gambling frequency as well as stake size, and measuring harm-inducing factors, i.e., dissociation, urge to gamble, dark flow, and illusion of control, using questionnaires. Following a between groups experimental design, 82 participants played for 20 game rounds one of the four versions. We recruited our sample from the students enrolled at the University of Würzburg. Our safety protocol ensured that only participants without any recent gambling activity took part in the experiment. In this comparative user study, we found no effect of the embodiment nor VE design on neither the gambling frequency, stake sizes, nor risk potential. However, our results provide further support for the hypothesis of the higher visual angle on gambling stimuli and hence the increased emotional response being the true cause for the higher risk potential.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author: Sebastian Oberdörfer, David Schraudt, Marc Erich Latoschik
URN:urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-284662
Document Type:Journal article
Faculties:Fakultät für Mathematik und Informatik / Institut für Informatik
Language:English
Parent Title (English):Frontiers in Virtual Reality
ISSN:2673-4192
Year of Completion:2022
Volume:3
Article Number:828553
Source:Frontiers in Virtual Reality (2022) 3:828553. doi:10.3389/frvir.2022.828553
DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/frvir.2022.828553
Dewey Decimal Classification:0 Informatik, Informationswissenschaft, allgemeine Werke / 00 Informatik, Wissen, Systeme / 006 Spezielle Computerverfahren
Tag:avatars; embodiment; gambling; immersion; risks; virtual environments; virtual reality
Release Date:2023/01/30
Date of first Publication:2022/02/10
Open-Access-Publikationsfonds / Förderzeitraum 2022
Licence (German):License LogoCC BY: Creative-Commons-Lizenz: Namensnennung 4.0 International