Exploring the relationships between psychological variables and loot box engagement, part 2: exploratory analyses of complex relationships
Authors
Spicer, Stuart GordonClose, James
Nicklin, Laura Louise
Uther, Maria
Whalley, Ben
Fullwood, Chris
Parke, Jonathan
Lloyd, Joanne
Lloyd, Helen
Issue Date
2024-01-03
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Show full item recordAbstract
In a pre-registered survey linked to this paper (Exploring the relationships between psychological variables and loot box engagement, part 1: pre-registered hypotheses), we confirmed bivariate associations between engagement with loot boxes (purchasable randomized rewards in video games) and measures of problem gambling, problem video gaming, impulsivity, gambling cognitions, experiences of game-related 'flow', psychological distress and reduced wellbeing. However, these variables have complex relationships, so to gain further insights, we analysed the dataset (1495 gamers who purchase loot boxes and 1223 purchasers of non-randomized content) in a series of Bayesian mixed-effects multiple regressions with a zero-inflation component. The results challenge some well-established results in the literature, including associations between loot box engagement and problematic gambling measures, instead suggesting that this relationship might be underpinned by shared variance with problem video gaming and gambling-related cognitions. An entirely novel discovery revealed a complex interaction between experiences of flow and loot box engagement. Distress and wellbeing are both (somewhat contradictorily) predictive of participants engaging with loot boxes, but neither correlate with increasing loot box risky engagement/spend (among those who engage). Our findings unravel some of the nuances underpinning loot box engagement, yet remain consistent with narratives that policy action on loot boxes will have benefits for harm minimization.Citation
Spicer, S.G., Close, J. Nicklin, L.L., Uther, M., Whalley, B., Fullwood, C., Parke, J., Lloyd, J. and Lloyd, H. (2024) Exploring the relationships between psychological variables and loot box engagement, part 2: exploratory analyses of complex relationships. Royal Society Open Science. 11231046 http://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.231046Publisher
The Royal SocietyJournal
Royal Society Open SciencePubMed ID
38179078 (pubmed)Additional Links
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.231046Type
Journal articleLanguage
enDescription
© 2024 The Authors. Published by The Royal Society. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.231046ISSN
2054-5703EISSN
2054-5703Sponsors
This work was supported by funding from the charity GambleAware. S.G.S. was additionally supported by the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula.ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1098/rsos.231046
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Licence for published version: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
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