Thumbnail Image
Item

The Blind Gamer: Examining Ethical Agency Through Choice Blindness in Game Design

Ghorbanpour,Kamyab
; 
Klincewicz,Michał
; 
Mavromoustakos Blom,Paris
; 
Spronck,Pieter
Abstract
This study examines the interplay between choice blindness and moral decision-making through the design and implementation of a decision-driven adventure game called Lost Civilization. Choice blindness, a phenomenon where individuals fail to detect changes in their decisions, was investigated within a controlled narrative environment featuring moral dilemmas in total, 56 participants (24 female, ages 18–35) engaged with the game, which subtly manipulated one of their moral decisions. The findings reveal that the majority (37) of participants did not detect the manipulation, underscoring the potential of games as tools for studying moral cognition and agency. Logistic regression analysis and machine learning models demonstrated significant correlations between undetected manipulations and participants’ gender as well as specific moral foundation scores based on Jonathan Haidt’s and Oliver Scott Curry’s dictionaries, suggesting deeper psychological underpinnings of decision-making processes. This research highlights the utility of video games in expanding the scope of choice blindness studies and advancing our understanding of ethical agency in interactive contexts.
Description
Date
2025-08
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Nature
Collections
Tilburg University Research Output Collection
Show all metadata
Files
Thumbnail Image
the_blind_gamer.pdf
Adobe PDF, 1.71 MB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
video game, moral foundation, gender, choice
Citation
Ghorbanpour, K, Klincewicz, M, Mavromoustakos Blom, P & Spronck, P 2025, The Blind Gamer : Examining Ethical Agency Through Choice Blindness in Game Design. in M Sugimoto, A Di Iori, P Figueroa, R Yamanishi & K Matsumura (eds), Entertainment Computing – ICEC 2025. Lecture Notes in Computer Science , Springer Nature, pp. 92-106, 24th IFIP TC 14 International Conference, Tokyo, Japan, 27/08/25. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02555-5_7
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14602/102939
Embedded videos