EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF STEREOTYPE THREAT AND IDENTIFICATION ON GAMING PERFORMANCE: A PILOT STUDY USING CUSTOM AVATARS

Stereotype threat, the fear of conforming to negative stereotypes associated with one’s group, can significantly impact individuals in various contexts, including education, professional settings, and even entertainment, such as video games. In this study, a pilot experiment is conducted to examine the effects of stereotype threat on players’ performance within a gaming environment. The methodology follows existing literature and employs a 2x2 matrix design. The participants play a simple 3D platform game and are divided into two groups: Custom Avatar Group – Participants in this group use avatars created from their own images; and Premade Avatar Group – Participants in this group use preexisting avatars that correspond to their gender while playing the game. Additionally, the presence of stereotype threat is manipulated by exposing half of each group to a fictitious article specifically designed to induce gender-related stereotype threat. This paper aims to address the following questions: (i) Can the recently available technology that enables players to create custom avatars based on their own images be successfully utilized for this type of experiment? (ii) How does stereotype threat impact players’ in-game performance? (iii) Is there a correlation between the higher impact of stereotype threat and gender? The results of this paper will check for the impact on in-game performance of the new technology allowing players to play as themselves in video games