Video games have long been understood as an entertaining and popular medium, and recent work has suggested that at least part of their appeal rests in their ability to foster feelings of sociability and belonging with others. From this, we expected that following an episode of social ostracism, playing video games with other people would be an enjoyable experience due the game’s ability to restore one’s social needs. However, in a 2 (social inclusion vs. social ostracism) x 2 (choosing to play alone vs. co-playing) quasi-experimental design, individuals who were socially ostracized in a ball tossing game reported no deficit in their subsequent enjoyment of the video game- reporting above-average enjoyment - while individuals who were socially included reported significantly lower enjoyment when playing alone compare to all other conditions. These effects held, controlling for individual sex, trait need for belonging, video game self-efficacy, and individual performance at the game. These results ran counter to predictions regarding the socially restorative power of video games following a social ostracism episode, and offer insight into how social scenarios might foster expectations of entertainment media products. Citation: Bowman, N. D., Kowert, R., & Cohen, E. (2014, November). When the ball stops, the fun stops too: The impact of social inclusion on video game enjoyment. Paper to be presented at the National Communication Association, Chicago.

1. Interaction Lab
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“WHEN THE BALL
STOPS, THE FUN STOPS
TOO”
Bowman · Kowert · Cohen

2. ABSTRACT
Video games have long been understood as an entertaining and popular medium,
and recent work has suggested that at least part of their appeal rests in their ability
to foster feelings of sociability and belonging with others. From this, we expected
that following an episode of social ostracism, playing video games with other people
would be an enjoyable experience due the game’s ability to restore one’s social
needs. However, in a 2 (social inclusion vs. social ostracism) x 2 (choosing to play
alone vs. co-playing) quasi-experimental design, individuals who were socially
ostracized in a ball tossing game reported no deficit in their subsequent enjoyment
of the video game- reporting above-average enjoyment - while individuals who were
socially included reported significantly lower enjoyment when playing alone
compare to all other conditions. These effects held, controlling for individual sex,
trait need for belonging, video game self-efficacy, and individual performance at the
game. These results ran counter to predictions regarding the socially restorative
power of video games following a social ostracism episode, and offer insight into
how social scenarios might foster expectations of entertainment media products.
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3. BACKGROUND
• Video games are a
decidedly social
endeavor
• Coplaying makes up
~ 60 to 75% of all
gaming experiences
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4. BACKGROUND
• Gaming and sociability
– Games as “third spaces of
discourse”
– Extraverts prefer gaming
– Gaming fosters relatedness
– Interdependence (from
gaming) fosters transactive
memory
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5. BACKGROUND
• Social inclusion is key to
psychological well-being…
• …and media usage
(including video games)
is linked to social inclusion
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6. BACKGROUND
• Social ostracism
triggers a need-threat
cognitive model…
• …which leads to a
drive to restore social
needs via social
monitoring (such as
seeking opportunities
for inclusion)
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7. Research questions
considered the impact of
(RQ1) performance on
enjoyment and (RQ2) need
for belonging on both game
choice and enjoyment
HYPOTHESES
• (H1) Socially ostracized individuals are more
likely to select co-playing game scenarios than
socially included individuals.
• (H2a) individuals choosing to play with others
should enjoy the experience more than
individuals choosing to play alone
• (H2b) socially ostracized individuals should
enjoy co-playing significantly more than socially
included individuals.
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8. METHOD
• N = 88 (n = 54 male, 21.25 years, 75% White)
• Random assignment to social ostracism (n = 40)
or ostracism (n = 48) setting
• Option to play video game for three rounds
• Post-treatment measures of need for belonging,
video game self-efficacy, video game enjoyment
(scalar); perceived closeness (graphical)
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9. OSTRACISM
We used a modified live version of Kip
Williams “ball toss” task.
• 90% of included participants said
“we” threw ball
• 100% of ostracized participants said
“they” threw ball
• Closeness scores higher for included
(~5.40) than ostracized (~2.50)
participants
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10. VIDEO GAME
Player chose to
watch, play CPU, or
play another (online
or co-located) for
three rounds. Player
always chose “Ryu”
to control for avatar
identification.

11. Increased need for
belonging (trait) led
to a likelihood to
play with others (B =
-.353), but only for
those socially
included.
RESULTS
• H1: Game selection; not confirmed
Alone Co-Play
Isolated
(binomial p = .608)
15a 19a
Included
(binomial p = .043)
27a 13b
χ2(1) = 4.09, p = .043
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12. Enjoyment
impacted by
performance,
game choice (co-play)
and game
self-efficacy – but
only for those
socially included.
RESULTS
• H2: Enjoyment highest when co-playing
(5.23) than alone (4.69), t(72) = 2.13, p = .037
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Alone Co-Play
Isolated
t(32) = .237, p =
.814
5.10a 5.19a
Included
t(35.40) = 2.72, p =
= .010
4.46b 5.29a

13. DISCUSSION
• We expected ostracism to lead to
a desire for social interaction…
• …but we found that inclusion
lead to
a) a desire to play alone
b) diminished enjoyment when
making this choice!
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What’s happening?
(a) Contrast effects,
such that being
included first may
have provided an
anchoring bias
regarding the
activity
(b) Ostracized folks
might become
asocial rather than
hypersocial
the ostracism event

14. FUTURE RESEARCH
• Closer examination of affective dimensions of
ostracism
• Context-specific perceptions of ostracism
• Cooperative vs. competitive tasks
• Variations of interdepencence and task
demand
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15. FOR MORE INFORMATION
http://comm.wvu.edu
/fs/research/lab
Nick Bowman, Ph.D. [CV]
Twitter (@bowmanspartan)
Skype (nicholasdbowman)
nicholas.bowman@mail.wvu.edu
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