This week we have been asked to look at the case studies below and spend no more than 15 minutes on each. As a review committee member I have to reply to each point stating my argument.
Flex.falmouth.ac.uk. 2021. Log in to canvas. [online] Available at: <https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/911/discussion_topics/19895?module_item_id=49193> [Accessed 19 March 2021].
Case Study 1
Tyrone wants to study the impact of violent games on people’s attitudes toward violence in real life. He plans to test 14-16 year olds because he believes they are still young enough to be highly impressionable. He will solicit volunteers to come after school. Half will be assigned to play one hour of a violent game while the other half will play an hour of a game that involves no violence. After the hour, all participants will fill out a questionnaire about their attitudes toward violence.
Discussion points:
What additional information might you want to know about the study in order to decide whether or not it should be approved?
What are the benefits that might result from this research? What are the potential harms?
If you were on an IRB reviewing this proposal, what would your recommendation be?
My Answers
1) I would want to know if the study has equal and fair variations across genders to get both sides of the opinion. According to Statistica, in 2019 which was the last recorded study into videogames, males tend to dominate the videogame play space with them accounting for 54% of the total player base. In 2020 that figure rose to 59%. I think it would be fair to have an even split. So if there were 30 places available 15 and 15 would be needed. I would also want to know what sort of questions would be asked in the questionnaire.
Statista. 2021. video gamer gender statistics 2019 | Statista. [online] Available at: <https://www.statista.com/statistics/232383/gender-split-of-us-computer-and-video-gamers/> [Accessed 19 March 2021].
2) The potential benefits of this study could be raising awareness of effects of violence in videogames. I would also think that this would encourage different rating systems in order to purchase and play or even encourage companies like Rockstar to implement a content switch in game like call of duty. This would then allow users to switch off foul language and certain violent aspects of the game whilst still enjoying the story of the game. A direct argument could be made however that this would only harm the vision of the game and the end experience for the user. Missing out on key details or story arches because of a content filter has removed it from the game. This makes me think back to 2007 when Manhunt 2 was released by Rockstar only to have it pulled from shelves immediately. Eventually the game was released by blurring out the violent acts, but still leaving enough to the imagination.
Manhunt 2 - Rockstar Games 2007. Blur effect to obscure the vision of the player when committing violent take downs.
3) If I were on the IRB I would ask that the content of the study remained simple and clear and that the same game was played by each group and didn't differ at any point. I would also like to see what the purpose of this study would be in terms of end goals. What will be the output from the study? What are the next steps once you have the data.
Case Study 2
Charlotte wants to research the effect of labelling students (gifted vs struggling) on their achievement in the first year of HE. She proposes that students be divided into reading groups in which ability levels are evenly mixed. One group will be told they are gifted readers, another group will be told that they are struggling readers, and a third group will be told nothing at all. Charlotte’s hypothesis states that by the end of the year, the students in the ‘gifted’ level group will outperform those in the ‘struggling’ group on the same reading test.
Discussion Points:
What additional information might you want to know about the study in order to decide whether or not it should be approved?
What are the benefits that might result from this research? What are the potential harms?
If you were on an IRB reviewing this proposal, what would your recommendation be?
My Answers
1) What sort of studies have been done before in this area and what were the results from that if any.
2) As far as potential harms, I feel the mindset of some students would be affected and maybe even cause some sort of mental health issues where by being labelled makes them feel as though they are not as good as others. In terms of benefits, it could help empower those to do better if they felt that they were in a group labelled "struggling". For me personally if I was in this group I would strive to achieve a better result from this.
3) I would want to see a signed waiver from students acknowledging their commitment to the study. That way, liability is taken away from the researchers and IRB. Failing this, I am not sure that this would be something I would condone as a study due to the overwhelming negatives I feel from this study.
User and Audience
For the second activity this week we have been asked to watch a video by Erik Geelhoed, which discusses different methodologies of conducting audience research. Whilst watching I made the following notes on how this can be applied to rapid ideation.
Firstly, it is important to distinguish the difference between Quantitative research and Qualitative research methods. Quantitative research deals with numbers and statistics, while qualitative research deals with words and meanings. Quantitative methods allow you to test a hypothesis by systematically collecting and analysing data, while qualitative methods allow you to explore ideas and experiences in depth.
In regards to rapid ideation I feel that more quantitative methods can be applied to rapid ideation research. This is because you can target more people at a given time via questionnaires, observations, automated logging of the application, when, how long and how often the participants do something. That is not to say qualitative methods can't be used. Group interviews and self reflection of the results by the researcher can also be a big impact.
I have chosen these methods particularly because as with any form of rapid ideation, there is a time element that goes alongside it. Using these methods of research will cover more people than say, one on one interviews, participants diary keeping and describing individual participants actions.
Integrity and Ethics Integrity and ethics are integral to good research project design and should not be considered as a separate activity. Ultimately, responsibility for integrity and ethics must lie with the individual researchers, not the university. This is expressed in relevant governance, management and procedures, as well as the provision of training and awareness.
All Research and Innovation activities conducted by staff and partners under the auspices of Falmouth University must comply with the university's Integrity and Ethics policy, guidance and approval procedures. Falmouth students undertaking taught programmes are bound by the same Integrity and Ethics policy as staff, but approval processes are currently managed at Departmental level.
Flex.falmouth.ac.uk. 2021. Log in to canvas. [online] Available at: <https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/911/pages/week-8-integrity-ethics-and-policy?module_item_id=49195> [Accessed 22 March 2021].
Derren Brown's Apocalypse in which someone is brainwashed without consent into believing it is the end of the world - [Accessed 22 March 2021].
Derren Brown attempted this trick back in 2012 where an unaware member of the public was brainwashed into believing that the world had ended and put them through a series of emotional and stressful situations. The trick received a lot of criticism due it's extreme methods.
A question of ethics?
Derren even went as far as to have Steve’s television, phone and internet hacked so that they could control what information he would receive. This in itself is ethically questionable and illegal in other situations.
As a huge fan of Derren, I am quick to support all of his work. He is undoubtedly a very talented, clever man who can do fascinating tricks. Mind-reading, hypnotism and even predicting the lottery numbers are some of the skills that Derren has under his belt.
Steve was selected because of his laziness and ungrateful attitude, unpleasant qualities that I’m sure we can all admit to let slip sometimes. But is being lazy and ungrateful a bad enough crime to have your whole family and Derren set you up to believe you are in a zombie attack?
The Channel 4 website states: ‘Our ‘survivor’ is someone who takes life for granted, and has yet to truly value what he has. The adventure that awaits him is meticulously crafted to give him the ultimate wake-up call, and teach him valuable life-lessons.’
The show caused a lot of controversy
Not only did people disagree with the extremity of the show, there was also a huge amount of speculation that the whole thing was set up. People believed that Steve was an actor.
Derren was quick to comeback at these rumours and wrote on Twitter:
“Conspiracy theory flying around that Steven is an actor, cos he looks like a guy in a noodle ad. I NEVER EVER fake stunts with actors.
“Plus his whole family/friends would have to be actors too.” Birsdall, Z., 2021. Apocalypse: did Derren go too far? - River Online. [online] River Online. Available at: <https://riveronline.co.uk/art-entsapocalypse-did-derren-go-too-far-0/> [Accessed 13 April 2021].
Examples of Case Studies
Emotional Contagion Facebook - January 2012
Image: Facebook Logo on PC https://ideas.ted.com/need-to-know-about-facebooks-emotional-contagion-study/ [Accessed on 22 March 2021]
The emotional contagion case study carried out by Facebook in 2012 is one of the most widely reported case studies to date. The reason for this is because it infringed upon people's rights and offered no awareness to the participants. People as young as 13 were part of the half a million people studied. The goal? To establish whether or not emotions are contagious online.
When it comes to emotions, there are many types that we can express. Anger, sadness, love and happiness. There are many things to consider when carrying out case studies. I have compiled a list of questions that I feel relevant to the topic that should be considered when undertaking such a task.
1. What are the ethical issues in this situation? Is there research misconduct? Detrimental behaviour? Has a crime been committed?
2. What is the evidence?
3. What are some of the codes, rules, or regulations that could be used to evaluate or resolve this dilemma? What are the requirements for reporting?
4. Who is potentially affected and what are the short‐ and long‐term effects?
5. How is science affected?
6. What are some of the resources that you could utilize? (examples include institutional integrity officers, professional societies, positions of authority, peers, student help services).
7. What would you do to resolve the situation?
8. When is it appropriate to talk with a colleague about their unacceptable behaviour and when is it not appropriate or possibly unsafe or detrimental?
9. What are the options for moving forward?
10. How could this situation be avoided or prevented?
11. What are the important lessons learned?
Looking back through these questions, it is clear that Facebook didn't consider many of these points when conducting their case study. For example, adding user research to the terms and conditions was not added until 4 months after the tests were carried out. This shows that they felt that what they did was morally wrong and that people should have been asked. Adding this after the experiment was a poor way of trying to fix the issue in regards to ethics of practice.
Gunderson, L., 2021. CASE STUDIES FOR SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY AND GEOETHICS PRACTICE. [online] https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781119067825.app1. Available at: <https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781119067825.app1> [Accessed 22 March 2021].
Social Transmission
In 2010 Facebook completed a case study around voter turnout. Human behaviour is thought to spread through face-to-face social networks, but it is difficult to identify social influence effects in observational studies, and it is unknown whether online social networks operate in the same way. A randomized controlled trial of political mobilization messages delivered to 61 million Facebook users during the 2010 US congressional elections. The results show that the messages directly influenced political self-expression, information seeking and real-world voting behaviour of millions of people. Furthermore, the messages not only influenced the users who received them but also the users’ friends, and friends of friends. The effect of social transmission on real-world voting was greater than the direct effect of the messages themselves, and nearly all the transmission occurred between ‘close friends’ who were more likely to have a face-to-face relationship. These results suggest that strong ties are instrumental for spreading both online and real-world behaviour in human social networks.
Again, as with this case study, Facebook failed to implement ethics and integrity into their programme and possibly manipulating millions of people into voting for a certain candidate. This can be classed as rigging an election which is a criminal offence and can lead to prosecution.
Bond, R., 2021. A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization. [online] nature.com. Available at: <https://www.nature.com/articles/nature11421> [Accessed 22 March 2021].
During this week, and after going through the videos and bibliography, I decided to start looking into how I could apply Integrity and Ethics into my own projects. Adding simple ways to protect the game and the publisher such as:
1) Adding footnotes on the splash screen such as "Warning, this is a work of fiction".
2) Adding other warnings such as "Violence and Gore" and also other factors that might be perceived as something else. An example of this would be drugs use and flashing lights for epilepsy.
3) Add a mature content filter to the game where certain aspects of the game can be scaled back such as alternative dialogue, removal of blood and violent scenes.
Looking at the above I have been researching on how I can implement game diversifiers such as these into my games. For language or alternative dialogue, I could simply add a two button's when new game is pressed which will ask the user if they wish to have adult content on or off. Whichever button is pressed will then switch to that dialogue of choice via a simple blueprint.
OnClicked>CreateWidget>Set the appropriate dialogue widget if text based>OpenLevel
In regards to mature content and removing blood and gore, you could make a boolean for Mature, and any time a blood particle or splatter is spawned, insert a branch with the Mature bool before it.
If there are parts of the environment where you have blood or guts in the level design, I recommend making an empty actor, making a decal array, expose it, then in the editor, add all the decals to the array (tedious if there's lots of blood). Then, for loop, turn off visibility if Mature is false.
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