5 255 THE EFFECT OF EXPECTATIONS IN AN APPLIED GAME importantly, players’ game experiences and affect were not influenced by the mental health messaging (Poppelaars, Wols et al., 2018). We also found that expectations did not predict in-game behaviours and that participants in both trailer-conditions showed similar increases in state-anxiety, arousal and GSR. Although players can explore and progress through the game in a variety of ways, MindLight’s design seems to ensure that players engage similarly with the game, regardless of their expectations about the game. Because engagement with the therapeutic techniques is necessary to be successful at the game, players who are unaware of the mental health aim still end up playing the game in a similar way as players who are aware of the mental health aim and may also benefit from it. Similarly, a previous study showed that initial anxiety levels were not associated with in-game play behaviours (Wols et al., 2018). Given the current findings, game designers may want to design applied games in such a way that players are encouraged to engage with the therapeutic techniques, regardless of their expectations about the game. Regarding the secondary aim, we found no moderation of motivation to change and symptom severity, with the exception of one significant interaction between expectations and motivation to change on fear attempts. Given the small sample and multiple interactions that were tested, it could well be a chance finding and hence will not be further elaborated on. It might be that no moderation effects were found because individual differences have cancelled out some of the effects. For example, not all participants with equal levels of anxiety may have perceived the mental health message as personally relevant (Buday, 2015; Oliver & Krakowiak, 2009; Wols et al., 2019). In addition, expectations may not only be affected by an explicit mental health aim but may depend on other personal characteristics, such as gender, age, race, dispositional optimism, personality, treatment history, beliefs about and experiences with applied games (Enck et al., 2013; Oliver & Krakowiak, 2009; Wols et al., 2019; Zhou et al., 2019). Future research may want to examine the role of perceived personal relevance (De Haan et al., 2013; Oliver & Krakowiak, 2009) in combination with other individual differences. Future research may also investigate the role of non-specific factors on the long-term as well as more ecological valid contexts, such as voluntary choice for, prolonged engagement with and ongoing use of an applied game for mental health. A limitation of the study is the modest sample size, only allowing detection of medium-sized effects. Secondly, participants were preselected on elevated levels of anxiety but there was no criterion regarding the time window between screening and participation in the lab, resulting in 54.4% of participants who did not meet the initial inclusion criterion anymore when they came to the
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