Work Hard, Scare Hard? An Investigation of How Mental Workload Impacts Jump Scare Intensity

TY - JOUR

T1 - Work Hard, Scare Hard?

T2 - An Investigation of How Mental Workload Impacts Jump Scare Intensity

AU - Terkildsen, Thomas

AU - Christensen, Lene Engelst

AU - Clasen, Mathias

PY - 2023/10

Y1 - 2023/10

N2 - Despite the prevalence and relevance of jump scares in horror video games, there is little empirical research on them. While HCI research commonly uses horror games as experimental stimuli, even less scientific research exists on what makes a jump scare in a game more or less scary. The present between-subject study (n=60) addresses this by investigating whether jump scare intensity - measured physiologically and subjectively - scales with task difficulty. We triggered in-game jump scares at increasing levels of mental workload across four counterbalanced conditions, manipulated using N-back tasks of varying difficulty. Results demonstrate a significant linear relationship between mental workload and physiological arousal. However, this is not the case for subjective perception of arousal elicited by the jump scare. These findings have design implications for horror games. They show that the level of physiological arousal caused by a jump scare can be controlled by changing the difficulty of an in-game task that necessitates a substantial amount of mental work at the same time.

AB - Despite the prevalence and relevance of jump scares in horror video games, there is little empirical research on them. While HCI research commonly uses horror games as experimental stimuli, even less scientific research exists on what makes a jump scare in a game more or less scary. The present between-subject study (n=60) addresses this by investigating whether jump scare intensity - measured physiologically and subjectively - scales with task difficulty. We triggered in-game jump scares at increasing levels of mental workload across four counterbalanced conditions, manipulated using N-back tasks of varying difficulty. Results demonstrate a significant linear relationship between mental workload and physiological arousal. However, this is not the case for subjective perception of arousal elicited by the jump scare. These findings have design implications for horror games. They show that the level of physiological arousal caused by a jump scare can be controlled by changing the difficulty of an in-game task that necessitates a substantial amount of mental work at the same time.

KW - Electrodermal Activity

KW - Game Design

KW - Horror

KW - Jump Scare

KW - Mental Workload

KW - Player Experience

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85175732527&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/3611021

DO - 10.1145/3611021

M3 - Journal article

SN - 2573-0142

VL - 7

SP - 27

EP - 44

JO - Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

JF - Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

IS - CHI PLAY

M1 - 375

ER -