Implications of gender differences for the development of animated characters for the study of bullying behaviour

S. Woods, L. Hall, K. Dautenhahn, D. Wolke

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper considers the impact of gender on the design of animated agents that aim to evoke empathy and to encourage children to explore issues related to bullying. High fidelity storyboards containing bullying scenarios were presented to 80 ten year old children from two schools. Children individually completed a questionnaire that focused on amongst other things the empathic relationship between the child and the characters in the storyboard. Results indicate significant differences between the genders, with greater levels of empathy and comprehension achieved when characters are of the same gender as the child. This has considerable implications for the design of animated characters for bullying scenarios, requiring that the gender of the child is taken into account when designing animated characters and the scenarios they participate in.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)770-786
JournalComputers in Human Behavior
Volume23
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2007

Keywords

  • Computer science
  • children
  • technology
  • education
  • victimisation
  • virtual reality
  • aggressive behavior

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Implications of gender differences for the development of animated characters for the study of bullying behaviour'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this