Disentangling real-world and virtual-world social norms: The persuasive elements and social psychological effects of a serious game

In the immersive environment of an online serious video game designed to depict social norms about excessive alcohol consumption, this study examines the effects of real-world and virtual-world social norms on alcohol use outcomes, centering on the persuasive elements of the One Shot game and its social psychological effects. This study implements a one-group, pretest-posttest, quasi-experimental design. Using a national sample of young adults aged 21–25 (N = 550) who reported recent binge drinking, OLS regression analyses documented that virtual-world norms were more predictive of alcohol-related outcomes than real-world norms. Specifically, virtual-world descriptive norms paired with severe consequences of hazardous drinking predicted improvements from pre-game to post-game in drinking refusal self-efficacy and attitudes toward drinking. Likewise, virtual-world social disapproval had a similar effect on drinking refusal self-efficacy, but not on attitudes toward drinking. Neither measure of virtual-world social norms had a significant effect on changes in intention to drink less from pre-game to post-game. Real-world descriptive norms and social disapproval had no significant effects on any of the alcohol use outcomes. Each of the three alcohol use outcomes improved significantly from pre-game to post-game. Implications for norms-based research and online serious video games are discussed