Peer pressure is often seen in a negative context and is widely misunderstood. In simple terms, peer pressure is an inherent demand for conformity to group norms and a demonstration of commitment and loyalty. While this can look like the typical idea of peer pressure (i.e., ditching class because all your friends are ditching class), it can also look more mundane, such as not bullying a kid because all your friends call you out on it. Used correctly, game designers and developers can reduce toxicity through peer pressure.

Social Groups

To effectively use peer pressure, we must understand how social groups work. If our games do not allow for proper social groups, we will never be able to exploit peer pressure.

Crowds

Crowds are the common type of social group that games cater to if they include a social system beyond friends lists. Crowds are large groups of people with similar goals or identities, usually larger than 20 people. These are the clans and guilds of MMOs. Due to the size of crowds, leaders are necessary to keep the group organized and together.

While crowd group systems are fantastic to have in online games, they are ineffective at applying peer pressure. Due to the group size, it’s easy for an individual to feel disconnected from the whole and only connected to a few. To apply peer pressure at this scale, an overwhelming majority of the group must agree on a matter, and the individuals who do not agree or confirm must feel like they have no other options for connection if they leave, which is not practical, even if possible. What crowds excel at is helping people find connections.

Dyadic & Triadic Relationships

Dyadic relationships are relationships developed by 2 close individuals. Triadic relationships are relationships developed by 3 close individuals. Due to how close the individuals in a dyadic and triadic relationship are, they heavily influence each other’s behaviors, actions, and social, emotional, and psychological well-being.

While dyadic and triadic relationships have the strongest influence on individuals, they are challenging to force and tend to form naturally. However, they are not impossible to manipulate. Encouraging mentorship and providing rewards for repetitive play between 2 or 3 individuals can help develop dyadic and triadic relationships between players.

Cliques

Cliques are small friend groups of around 5 to 10 close friends. These groups are relatively stable, with few instances of people joining or leaving. Cliques are underrepresented in games. The most suitable example is party systems, where a few players join as a team to play together. However, party systems fall short because of the lack of stability unless the party consists of already established friends.

Cliques are easier to design for than dyadic and triadic relationships but are currently underused. Party systems are incredibly close to encouraging cliques, but they fall short due to lacking the stability of cliques. Instead, what is needed is a clique system that functions similarly to how clan and guild systems work while only having 5 to 10 slots. Going any further on this topic would justify another blog post. So, I will make another one to dive deeper into social systems designed based on social psychology. The key takeaway is that cliques need stability, which party systems lack, crowds do not need, and clans and guilds enforce.

Applying Peer Pressure

While MMOs are fantastic for examples of social groups, competitive, team-based games, such as League of Legends and Overwatch, are much better to look at for toxicity. These kinds of games are littered with opportunities for players to be toxic: saying or typing hateful messages, intentionally throwing games, refusing to work with teammates, and so on. Part of what makes these kinds of games ripe environments for toxicity is the instability of groups. While teammates are generally locked in for a match, there is a decent chance players will not play with or against the other players in the match again unless they send friend requests. There’s also a sense of anonymity when playing online games. Since players are unlikely to cross paths again and feel anonymous, they experience no social pressure to behave civilly. So, how do we deal with that as game designers and developers?

We encourage social groups. Peer pressure works because people are afraid of social estrangement and isolation. Players aren’t scared of estrangement if they are not part of a close enough group.

In a sense, players are already part of a crowd: gamers. Players of a specific game are part of an even smaller crowd: gamers who play said game. So, we need to encourage them to join smaller groups where the connections are closer, more meaningful, and more stable. From there, applying peer pressure is much easier. When players are at risk of losing connections that they have built, they are much less likely to risk being banned. Also, if enough people in the group do not accept toxic behavior, they will either influence toxic players in the group to reform or kick them from the group. Players who are kicked from groups are more likely to change their behaviors to join another group. It is also in these smaller groups where dyadic and triadic connections are more likely to form, which will have a much more significant impact on encouraging behaviors.

Wrap-up

While most online games have social systems, they lack systems and encouragement for small, stable social groups. Small, stable social groups are vital for peer pressure and deeper social connections. By implementing systems to support and encourage small, stable social groups, we can reduce toxicity through peer pressure. If you want to learn more about social groups, I recommend reading “Peer Relations” by J. K. Dijkstra and R. Veenstra, which was included in Encyclopedia of Adolescence Vol. 2.

For more information about social systems in online games, I will publish another blog post taking a deeper look into social psychology-based social systems for online games and link it here when it’s available.