Projects per year
Abstract
Do people use games to cope with adverse life events and crises? Research informed by self-determination theory proposes that people might compensate for thwarted basic psychological needs in daily life by seeking out games that satisfy those lacking needs. To test this, we conducted a preregistered mixed-method survey study (n = 285) on people’s gaming behaviours and need states during early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (May 2020). We found qualitative evidence that gaming was an often actively sought out and successful means of replenishing particular needs, but one that could ‘backfre’ for some through an appraisal process discounting gaming as ‘unreal’. Meanwhile, contrary to our predictions, the quantitative data showed a “rich get richer, poor get poorer” pattern: need satisfaction in daily life positively correlated with need satisfaction in games.We derive methodological considerations and propose three potential explanations for this contradictory data pattern to pursue in future research.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | CHI 2022 - Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
Publisher | ACM |
Number of pages | 15 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450391573 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781450391573 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 29 Apr 2022 |
Event | 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2022 - Virtual, Online, United States Duration: 30 Apr 2022 → 5 May 2022 |
Publication series
Name | Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings |
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Conference
Conference | 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI 2022 |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | Virtual, Online |
Period | 30/04/22 → 5/05/22 |
Bibliographical note
This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for detailsKeywords
- basic needs
- compensation
- coping
- Covid-19
- mixed methods
- video games
Projects
- 1 Active
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EPSRC IGGI CDT
Cairns, P. A. (Principal investigator) & Cowling, P. I. (Co-investigator)
1/04/14 → 31/07/25
Project: Research project (funded) › Studentship (central)