Fundamental flaws in the design and reporting of Chew and Neo (2024)
File(s)
Published online version
Author(s)
Xiao, Leon Y
Ballou, Nick
Eben, Charlotte
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Loot boxes are products inside video games that consumers can buy to obtain random rewards. They are prevalently implemented in contemporary video games, including in those deemed suitable for young children. Stakeholders (parents and policymakers) are concerned about their gambling-like nature and potential harms. An established line of research has found positive correlations between loot box spending and problem gambling and problem video gaming that justify stricter regulation. Chew and Neo (2024) also sought to explore these relationships and presented findings that were contrary to the prior literature. In principle, challenging our current knowledge using novel methods can improve the overall reliability of science and should always be encouraged. However, those methods must be sound. Unfortunately, Chew and Neo (2024) was fundamentally flawed due to a major error in its survey materials: in relation to the most important variable, they incorrectly instructed participants that the highly popular video game League of Legends did not contain loot boxes, which was factually incorrect, as the game did sell loot boxes. This significantly affected the accuracy of the data and the subsequent results and interpretation. Besides this fundamental error, the study also suffers from several other critical shortcomings that call its validity into question, including (i) measuring and relying upon an unreliable variable, (ii) potentially unjustified exclusion of participants, and (iii) the misuse of statistics. More proactive engagement with open science practices would have alleviated our concerns or even prevented these issues from arising in the first place. Our analyses suggest that the validity of the results in Chew and Neo (2024) may have been compromised and should be interpreted with caution for meta-analysis and policymaking purposes.
Date Issued
2025-08-26
Date Acceptance
2025-07-15
Citation
Trends in Psychology, 2025
ISSN
2358-1883
Publisher
Springer
Journal / Book Title
Trends in Psychology
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2025 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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Publication Status
Published online
Date Publish Online
2025-08-26