Grounding the Study of Interactive Media in Open Science Instead of Hopes and Fears

• In Event: Open Science Practices in Communication Research and Reviewing: Overdue or Overrated?

Abstract

Abstract: The empirical study of interactive media, such as electronic games, has traditionally been grounded in concerns regarding their potential to foment behavioral dysregulation and aggression or hopes they can be turned towards positive ends. Unfortunately these literatures have faced increasing skepticism as many basic findings cannot be reliably replicated or extended, and academic debates have not moved beyond fundamental arguments about the existence of said effects. This presentation will outline how recent open science initiatives like those pursued in pharmacology, neuroscience, and experimental psychology may provide a new and generative lens for the empirical study of interactive media that have been scrutinized for their possible negative effects. In particular the utility of online tools and new publishing practices will be reviewed in terms of their potential to materially advance the current state of descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive research programs focused on effects of interactive media.

Qualifications: Dr. Andrew Przybylski is a behavioral scientist based at the Oxford Internet Institute who studies human motivation using methodology and theoretical approaches grounded in experimental psychology. His research examines the psychological dynamics of engagement with everyday and virtual contexts. Dr. Przybylski’s work concerned with virtual contexts places special emphasis on investigating the universal aspects underlying the pull of games (Przybylski, Rigby, & Ryan, 2010; Ryan, Rigby, & Przybylski, 2006), the appeal of violent game content (Przybylski, Rigby, & Ryan, 2009), paths by which games may serve to advance pedagogy (Rigby & Przybylski, 2009), the motivational roots of dysregulated game and social media use (Przybylski, Weinstein, Ryan, & Rigby, 2009; Przybylski, Murayama, DeHann, & Gladwell, 2013), the appeal of idealized identity in gaming contexts (Przybylski, Weinstein, Murayama, Lynch, & Ryan, 2012), methodological challenges to studying aggression in gaming (Przybylski, Deci, Rigby, & Ryan, 2014), population-level analyses of gaming effects on young people (Przybylski, 2014a) and popular views of gaming effects (Przybylski, 2014b) as well as other forms of information communication technologies (Przybylski, 2012; Przybylski & Weinstein, 2012).

Author

• Andrew K. Przybylski, Oxford Internet Institute