A mind of its own : Perceived unpredictable objects and anthropomorphism in players

Abstract: This study sought a method for influencing people to anthropomorphize nonhuman agents in video games by making them seem unpredictable. This was inspired by Epley et al.’s (2007) Three-factor theory for anthropomorphism with focus on effectance motivation. It was also inspired by the studies done by Waytz et al. (2010) showing that perceived unpredictability about an agent causes people to anthropomorphize it. To see if perceived unpredictability would cause people to anthropomorphize a nonliving object in a video game, two versions of a game was created, one in which an object with seemingly random behavior was described as unpredictable and one in which the objects behavior was explained beforehand. The data gathered from the participants did not show any statistically significant differences between those that played one version and those that played the other. Meaning that in this case perceived unpredictability didn’t influence people to anthropomorphize a video game object.