Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Effects Of Fantasy Role-Play On Bravery, Motivation, And Physiological Fear Responses While Playing Horror Video Games, Paul A. Giulietti

Undergraduate Honours Theses

A prior study found that role-playing exercises might have the capacity to reduce people’s fear (Giulietti, 2017). The present experiment was designed to replicate, improve upon, and extend the results of the prior study. Participants were randomly assigned to role-play either as a brave and powerful wizard or an ordinary accountant before playing the computer horror game, Slender: The Eight Pages. While participants played, they imagined themselves as their respective role-play character, were observed for their bravery and motivation to complete the game’s objective, and had their skin conductance measured. No significant differences were found between conditions and the prior …