Wii, Myself, and Size: The Influence of Proteus Effect and Stereotype Threat on Overweight Children's Exercise Motivation and Behavior in Exergames

Objective: Exercise-based videogames, or exergames, provide a promising and novel way to improve exercise attitudes and behavior among overweight children. These digital interventions often allow for customizations of player characters and weave in narratives and goals. Theoretically, the presence of visual identity cues (e.g., avatars) and social category cues (e.g., stereotypes) within the virtual gaming environment are likely to motivate a player's exercise attitudes and behavior in various ways. This study examined the effects of both visual cues (via the Proteus effect) and social cues (via stereotype threat) on overweight children's exercise attitudes and game performance in a virtual running game. Subjects and Methods: A 2 (avatar body size: Normal versus overweight)×2 (stereotype threat: Present versus absent) factorial design experiment was conducted with 140 overweight children between 9 to 12 years of age. Dependent variables measured were participants' exercise attitudes, exercise motivation, exercise motivation with regard to the Nintendo^® (Kyoto, Japan) Wii™, and their in-game performance. Results: Multivariate analysis of covariance tests showed that overweight children assigned to avatars of normal body size scored significantly better on all four variables compared with those assigned to avatars of large body size, whereas overweight children assigned to a stereotype threat absent condition scored significantly better on three of the four variables compared with those assigned to a stereotype threat present condition. Conclusions: Using avatars with normal body size and not being subjected to stereotypical messages has the potential to increase the effectiveness of exergames among overweight children. Exergame developers should consider designing avatars that are slim and toned and set "weight neutral" goals and challenges. These may provide more motivation and yield greater attitudinal and behavioral changes among overweight children.