ABSTRACT With the rapid expansion of the online gaming market, understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying player consumption behavior has become increasingly important. This study investigates how online game players' identification with virtual avatars is associated with perceived consumption value and, in turn, with gaming experience and in‐game spending. Two substudies were conducted with a total of 669 participants. Study 1 employed a questionnaire‐based survey to examine the relationships among core variables. Study 2 targeted players of Honor of Kings, a widely popular online game, to further test the proposed mediation model. The findings indicate that avatar identification significantly predicts perceived enjoyment through two mediators, specifically visual authority value and character competence value, which in turn are associated with players' consumption behaviors. Furthermore, the association between identification with a specific avatar and consumption intention provides additional support for the proposed mediation pathways. This research contributes to an “Identification–Value–Experience” framework for understanding online game consumption, suggesting that avatars serve not only as extensions of the self but also as sources of perceived value relevant to enjoyable gaming experiences and consumer decision‐making. Practical implications are discussed for game developers aiming to optimize user experience and inform monetization strategies.
ABSTRACT People often need to weigh the trade‐off between obtaining economic/status benefits and complying with moral standards in their daily lives. Once individuals make ethical compromises, they will abandon moral principles to obtain economic/status benefits. Therefore, it is necessary to explore the risk factors and mechanisms that induce ethical compromise. Using questionnaires (Study 1, Study 2), we found that calculative mindset is positively associated with individuals' moral disengagement, which corresponded with a tendency to make economic/status ethical compromises. Using experimental methods (Study 3), we found that calculative mindset increases individuals' moral disengagement, leading to a willingness to accept immoral help from others. This indicates that reducing people's calculative mindset will help reduce ethical compromises.
ABSTRACT As social robots become increasingly integrated into children's daily lives, it remains unclear whether children apply the same normative standards to artificial agents as they do to humans. Drawing on social domain theory and a dual‐process‐informed distinction between categorical choice and graded appraisal, the present research examined preschoolers' binary decisions and appropriateness ratings concerning humans and robots in the conventional domain (Study 1) and the moral domain (Study 2). Two studies used a modified road‐accident dilemma task. Across both studies, children's choices were strongly shaped by the behavioral valence of the sacrificial and saved targets; repeated‐measures ANOVAs also suggested greater intervention in human than robot scenarios, although these agent‐related choice effects were model‐sensitive in LMM checks. Appropriateness ratings showed a domain‐related pattern. In Study 1, ratings were comparable in human and robot scenarios, consistent with an egalitarian application of conventional standards. In Study 2, children rated saving an immoral human as more appropriate than saving an immoral robot, whereas ratings did not differ when the saved agents were moral. Because the direct cross‐study interaction did not reach the conventional significance threshold, the domain contrast should be treated as suggestive rather than conclusive. These findings suggest that preschoolers may treat robots as procedural social actors in conventional contexts while granting humans greater presumed moral standing in morally consequential contexts.
ABSTRACT Positive psychology has made substantial contributions to the scientific understanding of human flourishing, yet its conceptual architecture remains disproportionately grounded in WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) populations. Prevailing models privilege intrapersonal processes—autonomy, self‐efficacy, and personal achievement—while systematically under‐theorizing the relational and moral dimensions through which happiness is experienced and evaluated in non‐WEIRD societies. This article proposes a reformulation of happiness through the construct of relational well‐being: a multi‐level framework that reconceptualizes flourishing as emerging from the dynamic interplay between individuals and their embeddedness in social, relational, and moral worlds. Specifically, we define relational well‐being as a pattern of flourishing constituted by four interdependent dimensions: (a) relational connectedness and belonging, (b) role fulfillment and reciprocal obligation, (c) interpersonal harmony and conflict regulation, and (d) moral embeddedness within social and cultural systems. Although these dimensions are not culturally exclusive, we argue that they are normatively foregrounded, elaboratively articulated, and more systematically organized in Chinese cultural contexts—making Chinese society a theoretically generative case for advancing a non‐WEIRD account of well‐being. Drawing primarily on traditional Chinese philosophical traditions—including Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist perspectives—while acknowledging the dynamic transformation of contemporary Chinese culture, we develop a culturally grounded account of how relational processes constitute—rather than merely contextualize—the experience of happiness. Moving beyond a binary opposition between Chinese and Western models, we adopt a relative emphasis perspective that acknowledges cross‐cultural overlap while mapping systematic divergences in the normative organization of well‐being. We further address key methodological challenges in studying relational well‐being, including construct validity, measurement equivalence, and the risk of conceptual ethnocentrism, and we outline a research agenda for developing culturally sensitive, multi‐level assessment strategies. This article contributes to the ongoing project of building a genuinely inclusive positive psychology—one that integrates individual, relational, and collective dimensions of human flourishing and holds empirical validity beyond the WEIRD populations.
ABSTRACT Online disinhibition significantly influences adolescents' communication and behaviors in digital environments, yet culturally adapted measurement tools remain limited in China. This study aimed to develop and validate a Chinese version of the Online Disinhibition Scale (ODS‐C) based on Suler's (2004) theoretical framework. We translated and adapted Cheung et al.'s (2020) questionnaire through rigorous forward and backward translation protocols. Using a calibration sample ( n = 686), we tested the scale's internal structure, reliability, and construct validity. A cross‐validation sample ( n = 687) was subsequently employed to verify and select the optimal internal structure of the ODS‐C, assess measurement invariance across gender, and examine criterion validity based on relationships with internet addiction and cyberbullying perpetration. The final ODS‐C demonstrated a hierarchical five‐factor structure, in which dissociative anonymity and invisibility functioned as two distinct first‐order factors subsumed under a higher‐order anonymity factor, while the remaining four dimensions—asynchronicity, solipsistic introjection, dissociative imagination, and minimization of authority—operated as independent first‐order factors. Results indicate that the ODS‐C demonstrates high internal consistency, robust construct validity, and significant criterion validity. Evidence of measurement invariance confirmed the stability of the factor structure, loadings, and variances across genders. The ODS‐C provides researchers and practitioners with a reliable and valid tool for assessing online disinhibition among Chinese adolescents, facilitating more culturally informed interventions and policies addressing digital behavior.
