Exploring the behavioral component of the behavioral immune system through the cyberball game
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2021 |
Tipo de documento: | Dissertação |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | http://hdl.handle.net/10773/32011 |
Resumo: | The Behavioral Immune System is a complex suite of psychological mechanisms designed to protect the organism from potentially dangerous microorganisms, through emotional, cognitive, and behavioral strategies. This research proposes that, under a potential contamination situation, humans are guided to adopt avoidance behavior strategies towards the potential source of contamination. This was tested using an online game known as Cyberball, a ball-tossing game where three players must throw a ball to each other. Different participants played the game with different virtual players who differed on their health status. In particular, different groups of participants played the game with one healthy and one sick virtual player; two healthy virtual players; or two sick players. We hypothesized that participants on the healthy-sick game condition would avoid tossing the ball to the sick player, while participants on a condition of equal descriptors would not report differences on tosses. Moreover, we explored if the response of participants were based on reciprocity (rather than on the associated descriptors) and on the number of throws received from the virtual players. Our results revealed that participants who have been set to play with both sick virtual players (running nose vs. diarrhea), completed one part of the game and received an equal number of throws from the virtual players, displayed heightened avoidance behavior towards the first player, and reciprocated more often to the second player. On the other hand, when participants received the ball a different number of times from each player, or completed the game, no significant effects were obtained. Our study suggests that the Cyberball game can be used to explore the behavioral component of the Behavioral Immune System. Furthermore, our findings contribute to understand how human behavior is guided to overcome when set on a potential contamination of disease condition. |
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Exploring the behavioral component of the behavioral immune system through the cyberball gameBehavioral immune systemContamination threatCyberballBehavioral componentThe Behavioral Immune System is a complex suite of psychological mechanisms designed to protect the organism from potentially dangerous microorganisms, through emotional, cognitive, and behavioral strategies. This research proposes that, under a potential contamination situation, humans are guided to adopt avoidance behavior strategies towards the potential source of contamination. This was tested using an online game known as Cyberball, a ball-tossing game where three players must throw a ball to each other. Different participants played the game with different virtual players who differed on their health status. In particular, different groups of participants played the game with one healthy and one sick virtual player; two healthy virtual players; or two sick players. We hypothesized that participants on the healthy-sick game condition would avoid tossing the ball to the sick player, while participants on a condition of equal descriptors would not report differences on tosses. Moreover, we explored if the response of participants were based on reciprocity (rather than on the associated descriptors) and on the number of throws received from the virtual players. Our results revealed that participants who have been set to play with both sick virtual players (running nose vs. diarrhea), completed one part of the game and received an equal number of throws from the virtual players, displayed heightened avoidance behavior towards the first player, and reciprocated more often to the second player. On the other hand, when participants received the ball a different number of times from each player, or completed the game, no significant effects were obtained. Our study suggests that the Cyberball game can be used to explore the behavioral component of the Behavioral Immune System. Furthermore, our findings contribute to understand how human behavior is guided to overcome when set on a potential contamination of disease condition.O Sistema Imunitário Comportamental [BEH] é um conjunto complexo de mecanismos psicológicos, desenvolvido para proteger o organismo contra potenciais ameaças de contaminação, através de estratégias emocionais (nojo), cognitivas (atenção ou memória) e comportamentais. O Cyberball é um jogo de lançamento da bola, em que um jogador real interage com dois jogadores virtuais, sendo os participantes instruídos que os mesmos são reais. A presente investigação teve como objetivo explorar qual a influência das características dos jogadores virtuais, em particular características relacionadas ou não com doenças, no comportamento dos participantes. Para além disso, procurou-se explorar se este comportamento poderia ter sido orientado por um efeito de reciprocidade e pelo número de vezes que o participante recebeu a bola de cada jogador virtual. Os participantes foram distribuídos por diferentes grupos de contaminação: jogavam (1) com um jogador saudável e um jogador doente; (2) com dois jogadores saudáveis; ou (3) com dois jogadores doentes. Os resultados mostraram que os participantes, que receberam o mesmo número de lançamentos dos jogadores virtuais, completaram uma parte do jogo e foram distribuídos na condição doente-doente (“ranho” vs. “diarreia”), lançaram a bola mais vezes a favor do segundo jogador e reciprocaram mais vezes a favor mesmo (comparativamente ao primeiro jogador). Quando os participantes receberam a bola mais vezes de um dos jogadores virtuais, ou completaram o jogo na sua totalidade, não foram observadas preferências no lançamento da bola. Este estudo sugere que o Cyberball pode ser utilizado para explorar a componente comportamental do BEH. Para além disso, os resultados observados contribuem para compreender os padrões do comportamento humano quando este é exposto a uma potencial fonte de contaminação.2021-09-02T14:44:38Z2021-07-26T00:00:00Z2021-07-26info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesisapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10773/32011engMachado, Roberto Carlos Vilasinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2024-02-22T12:01:53Zoai:ria.ua.pt:10773/32011Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-20T03:03:50.354072Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Exploring the behavioral component of the behavioral immune system through the cyberball game |
title |
Exploring the behavioral component of the behavioral immune system through the cyberball game |
spellingShingle |
Exploring the behavioral component of the behavioral immune system through the cyberball game Machado, Roberto Carlos Vilas Behavioral immune system Contamination threat Cyberball Behavioral component |
title_short |
Exploring the behavioral component of the behavioral immune system through the cyberball game |
title_full |
Exploring the behavioral component of the behavioral immune system through the cyberball game |
title_fullStr |
Exploring the behavioral component of the behavioral immune system through the cyberball game |
title_full_unstemmed |
Exploring the behavioral component of the behavioral immune system through the cyberball game |
title_sort |
Exploring the behavioral component of the behavioral immune system through the cyberball game |
author |
Machado, Roberto Carlos Vilas |
author_facet |
Machado, Roberto Carlos Vilas |
author_role |
author |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Machado, Roberto Carlos Vilas |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
Behavioral immune system Contamination threat Cyberball Behavioral component |
topic |
Behavioral immune system Contamination threat Cyberball Behavioral component |
description |
The Behavioral Immune System is a complex suite of psychological mechanisms designed to protect the organism from potentially dangerous microorganisms, through emotional, cognitive, and behavioral strategies. This research proposes that, under a potential contamination situation, humans are guided to adopt avoidance behavior strategies towards the potential source of contamination. This was tested using an online game known as Cyberball, a ball-tossing game where three players must throw a ball to each other. Different participants played the game with different virtual players who differed on their health status. In particular, different groups of participants played the game with one healthy and one sick virtual player; two healthy virtual players; or two sick players. We hypothesized that participants on the healthy-sick game condition would avoid tossing the ball to the sick player, while participants on a condition of equal descriptors would not report differences on tosses. Moreover, we explored if the response of participants were based on reciprocity (rather than on the associated descriptors) and on the number of throws received from the virtual players. Our results revealed that participants who have been set to play with both sick virtual players (running nose vs. diarrhea), completed one part of the game and received an equal number of throws from the virtual players, displayed heightened avoidance behavior towards the first player, and reciprocated more often to the second player. On the other hand, when participants received the ball a different number of times from each player, or completed the game, no significant effects were obtained. Our study suggests that the Cyberball game can be used to explore the behavioral component of the Behavioral Immune System. Furthermore, our findings contribute to understand how human behavior is guided to overcome when set on a potential contamination of disease condition. |
publishDate |
2021 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2021-09-02T14:44:38Z 2021-07-26T00:00:00Z 2021-07-26 |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
format |
masterThesis |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
http://hdl.handle.net/10773/32011 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10773/32011 |
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eng |
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eng |
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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openAccess |
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application/pdf |
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reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação instacron:RCAAP |
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Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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RCAAP |
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RCAAP |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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