Abstract
Background Debate regarding the potential repercussions of engaging with videogames that promote violence and crime has been part of public discourse for decades. The present study seeks to add to the debate by investigating some of the unexplored links between pro-criminal videogames and antisocial cognitive processes. Aim This study examined whether criminal thinking could be manipulated by exposure to common criminal stimuli: a popular North American news show and a popular antisocial videogame (GRAND THEFT AUTO IV). Method Participants ( N = 136) were assigned to one of four conditions (criminal news, non-criminal news, criminal gameplay, noncriminal gameplay) followed by implicit (Implicit Association Test) and explicit (questionnaires) measures of criminal thinking. Results Results indicated that engaging in criminal video gameplay had an immediate effect on implicit measures of criminal thinking, but not on explicit measures of criminal thinking. Implications This study builds on the present literature by examining sources of criminal thinking and the usefulness of virtual crime methodologies and implicit measures for experimental paradigms in this field.
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