Chesney, Thomas and Lawson, Shaun W. (2007) The illusion of love: does a virtual pet provide the same companionship as a real one? Interaction Studies: Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems , 8 (2). pp. 337-342. ISSN 1572-0381

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Abstract

The purpose of this short paper is to examine whether a screen based virtual pet, specifically Nintendogs, gives any form of companionship comparable to a real pet. Nintendogs runs on a Nintendo DS, a mobile games console. The unit has a full colour screen showing an animated puppy which users must feed, water, walk, play with and train. An abundance of literature exists examining the benefits of owning a real pet yet very little has been written about human attachment to virtual pets. Six hundred five Nintendog users were contacted by email with a request to complete a questionnaire about their interaction, 80 (13%) responded. Nine hundred requests were made to a similar group who were asked to respond about their real pet, if they had one. One hundred sixteen responses were received. Results indicate that a Nintendog does give companionship, but companionship which is significantly less than that given by a real dog or cat.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The purpose of this short paper is to examine whether a screen based virtual pet, specifically Nintendogs, gives any form of companionship comparable to a real pet. Nintendogs runs on a Nintendo DS, a mobile games console. The unit has a full colour screen showing an animated puppy which users must feed, water, walk, play with and train. An abundance of literature exists examining the benefits of owning a real pet yet very little has been written about human attachment to virtual pets. Six hundred five Nintendog users were contacted by email with a request to complete a questionnaire about their interaction, 80 (13%) responded. Nine hundred requests were made to a similar group who were asked to respond about their real pet, if they had one. One hundred sixteen responses were received. Results indicate that a Nintendog does give companionship, but companionship which is significantly less than that given by a real dog or cat.
Keywords:	Virtual pets, Pets, companion animals, Computer games
Subjects:	G Mathematical and Computer Sciences > G440 Human-computer Interaction G Mathematical and Computer Sciences > G400 Computer Science
Divisions:	College of Sciences > Faculty of Science > Lincoln School of Computer Science
Depositing User:	Bev Jones
Date Deposited:	21 Sep 2007
Last Modified:	13 Mar 2013 08:25
URI:	http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/1210

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