Ferchaud Arienne, Seibert Jonmichael, Sellers Nicholas, Escobar Salazar Nivia
School of Communication, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States.
College of Applied Studies, Florida State University Panama City, Panama City, FL, United States.
Front Psychol. 2020 Sep 9;11:2240. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02240. eCollection 2020.
This study examines how playing a video game featuring a player-character with mental illness can positively impact mental illness stigma. We hypothesized that interactive gameplay would positively predict transportation into the story world. Then, transportation would predict identification with the main character. This identification should then reduce stigma in two ways: by lowering stereotyping and limiting participants' desire for social distance. A two-factor, yoked experiment was designed utilizing , a game praised for its accurate portrayal of psychosis. The main character, Senua, suffers from psychosis and must navigate her quest along with her own mental health. Players either played the first 45 min of the game or watched gameplay footage of other participants' sessions. Transportation into the story world, identification with Senua, and the two aspects of stigma - stereotyping and social distance - were measured. Consistent with hypotheses, a structural equation model found an indirect path from gameplay to reduced social distance through first transportation and then identification. Players also reported higher levels of transportation than non-players, and that heightened transportation led to greater identification and then a lowered desire for social distance from the mentally ill. The indirect path to stereotyping was not significant. These results and implications are discussed in detail.
本研究考察了玩一款以患有精神疾病的玩家角色为主的电子游戏如何能对精神疾病污名产生积极影响。我们假设交互式游戏玩法能正向预测融入故事世界的程度。然后，融入故事世界能预测对主角的认同。这种认同随后应会通过两种方式减少污名：降低刻板印象以及减少参与者对社交距离的渴望。利用一款因其对精神病的准确描绘而受到赞誉的游戏设计了一项双因素配对实验。主角森努亚患有精神病，在完成任务的过程中还必须应对自身的心理健康问题。玩家要么玩游戏的前45分钟，要么观看其他参与者游戏过程的视频片段。测量了融入故事世界的程度、对森努亚的认同以及污名的两个方面——刻板印象和社交距离。与假设一致，一个结构方程模型发现了一条从游戏玩法到通过先融入故事世界然后认同来减少社交距离的间接路径。玩家报告的融入故事世界的程度也高于非玩家，而且更高程度的融入会导致更强的认同，进而降低与精神病患者保持社交距离的渴望。通往刻板印象的间接路径不显著。将详细讨论这些结果及其意义。
