Designing Meta-choices in a Purpose Made Game to Explore Anti-social Choices

Much research has taken place aiming to understand the role of in-game behavior, particularly, moral behaviors in video games. However, less research has examined the design of these moral decisions and how it could influence the in-game and real-life decision-making process, such as meta-choices. Meta-choices are the choices above that of the game itself, for example the choice to stop playing the game. This research aimed to understand in-game moral behavior with restricted options in the game. Participants (N = 115) played a purpose made game where only anti-social options were presented as an in-game choice to examine if a meta-choice would be made. It was found that eight participants considered stopping the game and only two participants made the meta-choice to stop playing. Overall, this suggests a potential influence and bias in decision-making; the presented choice would be selected rather than the meta-choice to stop playing.