Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life
Author: Anderson, Craig and Karen Dill
Date: 2000
Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. April Vol. 78(4) 772-790
Full Text Link:
Available for $11.95 from http://content.apa.org/journals/psp/78/4/772
Synopsis:
Two studies examined the relationship between aggression and the playing of violent video games.
Keywords:
journal, psychology, aggression, violence, case study,
Abstract:
Abstract from PsychINFO http://content.apa.org/journals/psp/78/4/772
Two studies examined violent video game effects on aggression-related variables. Study 1 found that real-life violent video game play was positively related to aggressive behavior and delinquency. The relation was stronger for individuals who are characteristically aggressive and for men. Academic achievement was negatively related to overall amount of time spent playing video games. In Study 2, laboratory exposure to a graphically violent video game increased aggressive thoughts and behavior. In both studies, men had a more hostile view of the world than did women. The results from both studies are consistent with the General Affective Aggression Model, which predicts that exposure to violent video games will increase aggressive behavior in both the short term (e.g., laboratory aggression) and the long term (e.g., delinquency).
(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)
Implications for Game Industry:
(Implications by Brad Haggadone, Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media undergraduate, Michigan State University, )
Expectations:
- There is little experimental evidence that the violent content of video games can increase aggression in the immediate situation.
- Evidence found in previous studies on video games and aggression is "sparse and weak."
- The authors hypothesize that violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations.
- The authors hypothesize violent video games affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts
- General Affective Aggression Model theorizes that the enactment of aggression is largely based on knowledge structures (e.g., scripts, schemas) created by social learning processes. It assumets people who score high on measures of aggressive personality have highly accessible knowledge structures for aggression-related information.
Findings:
- Study 1 found a correlation between amount of violent video game play and "delinquent behavior" as self reported by 78 male and 149 female introductory psychology college students. The relationship was stronger among males and among those with an aggressive personality.
- Study 2 found that introductory psychology students who had played Wolfenstein 3D delivered a longer "you were wrong" audio signal to an unseen opponent than did those who had played Myst.
Going Deeper:
- The researchers draw broad conclusions about delinquency and aggressive thoughts and behavior. However, the population actually studied (undergraduate psychology students) is not one in which delinency of concern is particularly prevalent. Likewise, the aggressive thoughts and behavior were benign behaviors unlikely to raise concerns.
Editor’s Opinion
- The information found is this and other studies of video game violence should be considered rather than ignored by game developers.
- This study does not appear to justify changes in how games are designed.
Research Highlights:
- Overall, men have a more hostile view of the world than women do.
- Real-life violent video game play was positively related to aggressive behavior and delinquency.
- This relationship was stronger for individuals who are characteristically aggressive and for men.
- Academic achievement was negatively related to overall amount of time spent playing video games
