https://door.donau-uni.ac.at/o:6063 Affective and behavioral modulations under contrasting social climates : Toxicity vs. Support in cooperative Esports paradigms Gholami, Afshin Afshin Gholami 0009-0000-0086-6611 University of Klagenfurt Yousefzadeh, Seyedsadegh Seyedsadegh Yousefzadeh 0009-0002-0978-2507 Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences Pfeiffer, Alexander Alexander Pfeiffer 0000-0002-8689-3318 Universität für Weiterbildung Krems University of Krems Press text eng This research examines how supportive, toxic, and neutral social interaction styles influence player performance, motivation, and sense of belonging in competitive esports. Twenty-seven participants completed three five-minute rounds under systematically varied team climates using a within-subjects design. Unknown to participants, teammates were trained confederates enacting one of three behaviors: supportive (encouraging through in-game help and positive chat), toxic (withholding cooperation and criticizing), or neutral (functionally cooperative yet emotionally detached). Condition order was randomized. After each round, participants rated belonging, motivation, fairness, enjoyment, frustration, and competitiveness. Results showed that performance peaked under supportive conditions, followed by toxic, and was lowest in neutral play. Motivation was strongest in supportive and neutral settings, while toxicity increased competitiveness and frustration but lowered engagement. Sense of belonging and cooperative success were highest in supportive contexts and significantly differed across all conditions (p < .05). esports social climate player motivation emotional engagement team dynamics http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ https://door.donau-uni.ac.at/api/object/o:6063/download 10.48341/frog25.4 https://door.donau-uni.ac.at/o:6067 application/pdf ESPORTS - Esports Professions and Opportunities: Ressources and Training for Success ESPORTS - Esports Professions and Opportunities: Ressources and Training for Success 643.33 kB 2026-02-26