Attachment styles have a significant impact on emotional regulation and social anxiety, influencing interpersonal relationships and psychological well-being. Individuals with attachment anxiety rely on hyperactivating strategies, such
as rumination, while avoidant attachment is associated with emotional suppression, limiting social connections and increasing psychological distress (Malik et al., 2014; Garrison et al., 2014). Despite the extensive research on attachment
theory, limited studies have examined these processes in simulated environments, where controlled conditions allow for in-depth behavioral observation beyond self-reports.
The hypothesis of this proposal is that attachment styles influence emotional regulation and social anxiety in virtual environments, replicating real-world behaviors. To test this hypothesis, this study will use The Sims 4, an interactive
life simulation game that allows players to create and control virtual characters, called “Sims,” as they navigate various life experiences, social interactions, and emotional responses. Sims behave autonomously, based on programmed
traits and environmental factors. This study will replicate a study conducted by Read et al., (2018) to determine how attachment traits manifest in virtual behaviors. The study will track in-game decision-making, interpersonal interactions,
and emotional responses among virtual characters (“Sims”) that are programmed to exhibit attachment-related behaviors.
Using an interdisciplinary approach that integrates psychology, computational social science, and human-computer interaction (HCI), this research will connect traditional psychological theory with digital behavioral tracking and statistical
modeling to provide a deeper understanding of attachment mechanisms in a simulated context.
This research will validate the use of The Sims 4 as a tool for psychological studies, offering a cost-effective and ethical alternative to real-world interventions.
Specific Aims
- Examine the relationship between attachment styles, emotion regulation strategies, and social anxiety by simulating attachment-driven behaviors in The Sims 4 and quantifying in-game interactions, social choices, and emotional responses.
- Assess whether attachment-related behavioral tendencies manifest in virtual decision-making by analyzing in-game patterns, such as social engagement, conflict resolution, and avoidance behaviors after distinct attachment styles modeled
in Sims.
- Investigate the role of emotion regulation as a mediator between attachment styles and social anxiety by measuring the frequency and effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal and suppression in virtual interactions, based on real-world
participant tendencies.
- Compare observed in-game behavioral outcomes to established psychological findings by using statistical analysis to evaluate the degree to which simulated attachment patterns align with the real-world predictions of attachment theory.
- Evaluate the potential of virtual environments as tools for psychological research and intervention by determining whether The Sims 4 can reliably model and predict human attachment-related social behaviors, thereby validating its
use for future mental health applications.
Interdisciplinary Research Components
This research seeks to explore how attachment styles, social anxiety, and emotion regulation strategies manifest in a virtual setting using The Sims 4. The complex question at the heart of this research is: Can attachment styles and emotion
regulation strategies be reliably modeled in a virtual simulation, and do these virtual behaviors align with real-world psychological theories?
To answer this, the study integrates psychology, computational social science, and human-computer interaction (HCI). Psychology provides theoretical frameworks related to attachment and emotional regulation (Read et al., 2018; Malik et
al., 2014), computational social science enables the simulation and analysis of human-like behaviors (Cushman, 2023), and HCI methods allow for structured observations within a game environment (Murray-Smith et al., 2022). The combination
of these disciplines is necessary to replicate real-world psychological interactions within a simulated environment and systematically analyze the outcomes.
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