Cognitive Dissonance in Game Behavior
In games, there is a behavior that creates a prisoner’s dilemma when you start to lose. When you start to lose, often times players will stop playing rationally this is due to Cognitive dissonance. When a player realizes they’re losing or doing bad and aren’t actually as good as they think, it creates a conflict between actually reality and what the player thinks (several examples of Cognitive Dissonance in the 3rd link). Instead of accepting this truth and just making better decisions next time, players will instead start to backwards rationalize (from the second link) or make impulsive and emotion responses instead of rational responses. They will start to justify why they are losing by blaming other players or blaming bad luck. We can create a prisoner’s dilemma table for losing players where they can either accept fault or blame another player.
prisoner’s dilemma (accept you’re bad, or blame others).
accept deny
accept fault -5,-5 -10,0
deny fault 0,-10 0,0
The result is how the players feel about themselves after the game, not necessarily the outcome of the game just played. When they accept fault, there is a negative realization that they are not the best and need to improve. In the long run, it may lead to more happiness but the immediate response is depressing. What’s worse is if their teammates then denies their role in the game and puts their blame on the first player as well. However, if the first player denies their responsibility, then there is no negative feeling. The downside is that the player never realizes that they are not as good as they think they are and puts them in a never ending cycle.
This happens so much that it becomes a strategy in games. One strategy is to try and force cognitive dissonance among one of the players on the enemy team. This allows the opponent to gain a significant advantage. The first article refers to a particular competition in a video game, but this is also commonly seen in athletic sports. Many times a team looks like they will never win, but are able to play rationally. Often times these are called comebacks. People expect players morals to be crushed after there is a landslide and impossible to come back from. Since the winning side is so far ahead, the opponents are not going to be able to catch up. However, if a losing player continues to make rational decisions and the opponents don’t continue to play smart, the losers can end up winning.
Articles:
- http://www.team-dignitas.org/articles/blogs/League-of-Legends/2193/League-of-Mindgames/
- http://www.razerzone.com/academy/?p=672
- http://www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk/articles/stop-lying.html
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