Virtual Money and Emotional Reality: A Qualitative Analysis of Symbolic Issues in a Stock Market Simulation

This article analyzes how novice investors emotionally experience a stock market simulation conducted with virtual money. Financial simulations are sometimes criticized because they do not reproduce the real financial consequences of investment decisions. However, the fifteen semi-structured interviews conducted after the simulation show that the absence of monetary loss does not eliminate the emotional intensity of the experience. Participants report stress, fear, frustration, disgust, disappointment, satisfaction, and pride. This article argues that virtual money shifts emotional responses toward other forms of issues. Virtual losses are often interpreted as signs of poor decision-making, a lack of competence, or personal failure. Conversely, virtual gains may produce feelings of satisfaction or validation of one’s choices. Ranking also plays a central role: it transforms the exercise into a competitive situation and gives social value to individual performance. The academic bonus constitutes another form of stake because it situates the simulation within a framework aimed at improving academic performance. Based on a thematic analysis of the interviews, this article identifies five dimensions: virtual money as partial protection against financial loss; ranking as a symbolic substitute for financial stakes, the academic bonus as a real consequence of performance, virtual loss as a perceived loss of competence and frustration as a driver of recovery attempts, withdrawal, or disengagement. These findings show that stock market simulations are useful tools for observing how novices assign emotional meaning to gains, losses, ranking and their own competence. This article contributes to the literature on emotions and experimental simulations by demonstrating that emotional intensity does not depend exclusively on exposure to financial loss. Even when virtual, money becomes emotionally significant when it is associated with stakes related to performance, social comparison, academic success, and decision-making identity.