Violent Video Games Research Articles

Call for Special Issue Papers: Effects of Violent Video Games.

Call for Special Issue Papers: Effects of Violent Video Games.

Impact of Playing Violent Video Games Among School Going Children

Introduction: Children who play violent video games can become violent and aggressive. An aggressive emotional change in their behavior and deviation in academic performance is usually noticed. Aim: To assess the impact of violent video games playing among school going adolescents. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among a random sample of 400 adolescents recruited from four selected English medium schools of a City of Northern India by convenient sampling. Each student was interviewed by using a self-structured questionnaire which covered demographics, video gaming behaviors, and effects of video game playing on adolescents. Statistical Analysis: Collected data were entered in Microsoft Excel and subjected to suitable statistical tests. Results: 83.75% of the participants play video games while 1/3rd preferred to play violent games. 72.24% of the parents did not monitor the video game content of their children. Both boys (58.56%) and girls (17.12%) got aggressive during parent’s interference while playing violent video games. Most of the male (62.07%) were willing to apply actions of violent video games in real life. About 63.21% male violent video gamers showed poor academic performance as compared to girls (33.33%). Conclusion: Adolescents and their parents should be updated about the negative impact of excessive video game playing on health and psychosocial functioning.

Violent video games exposure and aggression: The role of moral disengagement, anger, hostility, and disinhibition.

Based on the General Aggression Model (GAM), the current study investigated the interactive effect of personal factors (e.g., sensation‐seeking) and situational factors (e.g., violent video games exposure [VVGE]) on the trait aggressive behavior, and the mediating role of individual difference trait (e.g., moral disengagement, anger, and hostility). We recruited 547 undergraduates (48.45% male) from five Chinese universities. The results showed that VVGE was positively associated with moral disengagement, disinhibition, and the four aggressive traits (physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility), which were positively associated with each other. Moral disengagement was positively associated with both the disinhibition and the four aggressive traits. Disinhibition was positively associated with the four aggressive traits as well. When controlled for gender, moral disengagement, anger, and hostility wholly mediated the relationship between VVGE and aggression, but the moderation effect of disinhibition was not significant. These findings support the framework of GAM and indicate that moral disengagement, anger, and hostility may be the factors that increase the risk of a higher level of aggression following repeated exposure to violent video games.

Can Violent Video Game-Related Aggression Spread to Others? Effects on Retaliatory and Displaced Aggression

Exposure to violent video games (VVE) has been shown to increase aggression in the player. In the present two experiments, we tested whether this effect spreads within a social network. In Experiment 1, using data from a previous study that showed an effect of VVE on aggression in a Competitive Reaction Time Task (Greitemeyer, 2014), we assigned the blasts of noise selected by players to new participants. Afterwards, they selected these parameters themselves. VVE had a causal effect on retaliatory aggression, showing that the effect of VVE may spread on non-players. In Experiment 2, 200 participants played either a violent or nonviolent video game and participated in a Cold Water Task (CWT) in which they assigned the time another person has to keep the hand in painfully cold water. Two-hundred new participants were yoked to one of the video game participants and had to keep their hand in the water for the indicated duration. Afterwards, they assigned the time to the video game participant (retaliation) or to another person (displaced aggression). Although VVE had no significant impact, we found that higher CWT duration led participants to behave more aggressively not only when retaliating, but also, to a lesser extent, in the displaced aggression condition. Implications of the spreading effect of aggression in the context of VVE are discussed.

The contagious impact of playing violent video games on aggression: Longitudinal evidence.

Meta‐analyses have shown that violent video game play increases aggression in the player. The present research suggests that violent video game play also affects individuals with whom the player is connected. A longitudinal study (N = 980) asked participants to report on their amount of violent video game play and level of aggression as well as how they perceive their friends and examined the association between the participant's aggression and their friends’ amount of violent video game play. As hypothesized, friends’ amount of violent video game play at Time 1 was associated with the participant's aggression at Time 2 even when controlling for the impact of the participant's aggression at Time 1. Mediation analyses showed that friends’ aggression at Time 1 accounted for the impact of friends’ amount of violent video game play at Time 1 on the participant's aggression at Time 2. These findings suggest that increased aggression in video game players has an impact on the player's social network.

From the Dragon to the Beast: The Martial Monk and Virtual Ninja as Actual Martial Artists

Navigating between society’s moral panics about the influence of violent videogames and philosophical texts about selfcultivation in the martial arts, this extract from the monograph, The Virtual Ninja Manifesto: Fighting Games, Martial Arts, and Gamic Orientalism, asks whether the figure of the ‘virtual ninja’ can emerge as an aspirational figure in the twenty-first century, modeled on the 'event' of Bruce Lee. The work seeks to illustrate the argument that the kind of training required to master videogames approximates the kind of training described in Zen literature on the martial arts. It suggests that the shift from the actual dōjō to a digital dōjō represents only a change in the technological means of practice. It explores the possibility that, after Bruce Lee and Daigo Umehara, martial arts games can promote spiritual development.

Relationships Among Violent and Non-Violent Video Games, Anxiety, Self-Esteem, and Aggression in Female and Male Gamers

This study examines the differences in anxiety, self-esteem, and aggression levels between players of violent and non-violent video game and its connection to gender and age. This survey-based research utilizes survey data from 851 video gamers. The study included 61% men and 39% women. The ages of the participants ranged from 18 to 45. Participants were administered an anonymous survey including demographics, a questionnaire for video game habits, Rosenberg's self-esteem scale, a state anxiety inventory (STAI-S), and the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ). The results revealed significant differences between males and females, as well as between younger and older gamers. Despite the majority of research showing a positive relationship between violent video game exposure and aggression levels, the results suggest that of the preference for a violent video game over a non-violent one is not, in itself, a cause for increased anxiety, self-esteem, and aggression levels.

Effects of playing violent video games on teenagers’ behavior – An experience from Malaysia

Introduction: Violent behaviours among teenagers have increased significantly over the years and the mean age of the crime has become younger. Aim and Objective: Our objective was to determine the effects of video games on male teenagers’ behaviors among population in the 24 secondary schools Muar, Johor, Malaysia. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study. Our sample size was 380 and the age of the respondents were between 13-16 years. Data was collected by using 4 sets of questionnaires, which are demographic information (4 items), Multi-Dimensional Emotional Empathy Scale (24 items), Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (29 items) and Self Report Altruism scale (20 items). Results: Our results showed that 78.41% students were violent video gamers. Out of 380 students, 156 students (40.1%) engaged with videogames less than 2 hours per day, 151 teenagers (38.8%) used to play between 2 and 4 hours per day and only 82 teenagers (21.1%) used to play for more than 4 hours per day. About 70% of respondents score was lower than standard in both physical and verbal aggression. Level of altruism is one of the objectives in this research. Discussion: Our results documented that there is a relationship between the video games and the aggressive behaviour even the prosocial behaviour as well. Though the assessment of the aggression, the participant showed more on the anger and hostility attitude. Video games not only related to aggression but also it is related to the diminishing the sense of empathy among teenagers. Conclusion: We concluded in our study that most of the participants showed that they prefer violent video games, most of them are not empathetic and they don’t have altruism attitude.

The Police Officer’s Dilemma

Abstract. Correll and colleagues ( Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002 ) developed a first-person shooter task that simulates the police officer’s dilemma of whether to shoot or not a target that may present lethal danger. The present study examined the relationship between habitual violent video game play and responses in this shooting paradigm. Habitual violent video game play has been shown to increase the accessibility of aggressive thoughts. Previous research also demonstrated that action video game play has a positive impact on perceptual skills. Hence, it was hypothesized that players of violent video games would be more likely to mistakenly shoot a target and exhibit shorter reaction times in the shooting task. Results revealed that reaction times, but not error rates, were significantly associated with habitual violent video game play. These findings suggest that habitual violent video game play may have a positive impact on overall processing skills without limiting accuracy.

The Impact of Pro-Social and Violent Video Games on Helping Attitude: A Comparative Study

The Impact of Pro-Social and Violent Video Games on Helping Attitude: A Comparative Study

Finding Common Ground in Meta-Analysis “Wars” on Violent Video Games

Independent meta-analyses on the same topic can sometimes yield seemingly conflicting results. For example, prominent meta-analyses assessing the effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior have reached apparently different conclusions, provoking ongoing debate. We suggest that such conflicts are sometimes partly an artifact of reporting practices for meta-analyses that focus only on the pooled point estimate and its statistical significance. Considering statistics that focus on the distributions of effect sizes and that adequately characterize effect heterogeneity can sometimes indicate reasonable consensus between “warring” meta-analyses. Using novel analyses, we show that this seems to be the case in the video-game literature. Despite seemingly conflicting results for the statistical significance of the pooled estimates in different meta-analyses of video-game studies, all of the meta-analyses do in fact point to the conclusion that, in the vast majority of settings, violent video games do increase aggressive behavior but that these effects are almost always quite small.

Development and Validation of a Parent-Based Program for Preventing Gaming Disorder: The Game Over Intervention.

Since the inclusion of gaming disorder in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) as a condition for further study, there has been an increasing consensus that problematic gaming can be detrimental to mental health, yet efforts in preventing such problems from emerging have been limited. To address this gap, we developed the Game Over Intervention (GOI), a parent-based program designed based on the frameworks of ecological systems theory and self-determination theory. This study aimed to test the efficacy of the new program using the method of a randomized controlled trial, with the control condition being a program for effective learning. Participants were the parents of upper primary school students, with 163 (77% women; Mage = 42.70) and 199 (83% women; Mage = 41.82) partaking in the intervention and the control conditions, respectively. Participants rated their children’s gaming time, exposure to violent video games, and symptoms of gaming disorder at three time points: baseline, one week after intervention, and three months after intervention. The results indicate a general reduction in these three criteria across the three-month period. Our study provides tentative evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of the GOI in mitigating some gaming-related problems.

Effect of Exposure to Gun Violence in Video Games on Children’s Dangerous Behavior With Real Guns

Among resource-rich countries, the United States has the highest rate of child mortality by unintentional firearm use. To test whether children's exposure to violent video games increases dangerous behavior around firearms. This randomized clinical trial was set in a university laboratory and included pairs of children aged 8 to 12 years who knew each other. Of 313 participants who signed up, 250 were tested (2 arrived without partners, 61 did not arrive to participate). Of the 250 children tested, 8 were excluded (2 did not complete the study, 2 had participated in a related study, and 4 were outliers). Each child was paid $25. Data were collected July 1, 2017, to July 31, 2018. In a 3-group randomized design, pairs of children played or watched 1 of 3 versions of the game Minecraft for 20 minutes: (1) violent with guns, (2) violent with swords, or (3) nonviolent. The pairs of children were then placed in a different room and were told they could play with toys and games for 20 minutes. A cabinet in the room contained 2 hidden disabled handguns with counters for trigger pulls. Play sessions were videotaped. Main outcomes were touching a handgun, seconds spent holding a handgun, and number of trigger pulls (including at oneself or the partner). Control variables included sex, age, trait aggressiveness, exposure to violent media, attitudes toward guns, presence of firearms in the home, interest in firearms, and whether the child had taken a firearm safety course. Of 242 participants, 220 children (mean [SD] age, 9.9 [1.4] years; 129 [58.6%] boys) found a gun and were included in analysis. Among the 76 children who played the video game that included gun violence, 47 children (61.8%) touched a handgun. Among the 74 children who played the video game that included sword violence, 42 (56.8%) touched a handgun. Among the 70 children who played the nonviolent video game, 31 (44.3%) touched a handgun. Participants who played a violent version of the game were more likely to shoot at themselves or their partners than those who played a nonviolent game. Other risk factors for dangerous behavior around firearms included self-reported habitual exposure to violent media and trait aggressiveness. Self-reported exposure to violent media was positively associated with total trigger pulls (incidence rate ratio [IRR], 1.40; 95% CI, 1.00-1.98) and trigger pulls at oneself or one's partner (IRR, 1.88; 95% CI, 1.29-2.72). Trait aggression was positively associated with total trigger pulls (IRR, 13.52; 95% CI, 3.14-58.29), trigger pulls at oneself or one's partner (IRR, 25.69; 95% CI, 5.92-111.39), and time spent holding a handgun (IRR, 4.22; 95% CI, 1.62-11.02). One protective factor was having taken a firearm safety training course. Exposure to violent video games increases children's dangerous behavior around firearms. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT03259139.

Gun Violence in Video Games and Subsequent Firearm Play

Gun Violence in Video Games and Subsequent Firearm Play

The effect of violence and competition within video games on aggression

Since the release of video games numerous studies have assessed the impact of violence within video games on aggression, yet few have assessed the impact of competition. Initial studies that include competition indicate that competition within video games does impact aggression, and that it is the competitive nature of violent video games rather than the actual violence that has increased aggression. However, previous competitive video game studies have assumed levels of competition within video games or have used different games across conditions, both of which may have confounded results. As such, this study aimed to assess the impact of both competition and violence on aggression using a true experimental design and using the same game across conditions. Sixty-four participants played one of four versions of a video game (2 [Competitive] x 2 [Violent]) and it was found that competition, but not violence, impacted aggressive affect. In addition, participants who lost in the competitive version of the game had even higher levels of aggressive affect. Neither competition nor violence impacted aggressive behaviour. Possible limitations to this study included the poor validity of the Taylor Competitive Reaction Time Task (TCRTT) and the delay between participants finishing the game and then competing the TCRTT. Overall, these findings further support the notion that competition rather than violence within video games impacts aggression. Future research should assess ways to encourage fair play within video game communities to reduce the impact of competition on aggression.

Video Game Violence. A Philosophical Conversation with Mathieu Triclot

Video Game Violence. A Philosophical Conversation with Mathieu Triclot

Parental influence on youth violent video game use

Violent video games have been the subject of much news and analysis. One area of the debate, particularly in legal arenas, has been whether parents have or should have control over what games their children play. Despite such debates, only limited empirical research has examined whether parents actually do have influence over what games their children play or how much they play them. Using cross-sectional data from large-samples of American high-school and middle-school students, this study examines parental influences on violent video game play and the role of perceived parental opinion of violent video games. Results suggest that parental attachment and perceived parental opinion of video games play a significant role in the degree to which youth play violent games, even through later adolescence in high school.

The interaction of contextual realism and fantasy tendency on aggressive behavior following violent video game play: An indirect test of violent content effects

The current study employed a novel experimental paradigm to test the effect of violent video game content on aggressive behavior. This was accomplished by leveraging player engagement with the game's content as opposed to direct manipulation of violent content. Participants reported on their dispositional tendency to engage in fantasy activities after playing either a realistic or fantasy version of the same game. A two-way interaction revealed that participants who regularly engage with fantasy were more likely to administer aversive noise “blasts” to another person after playing the fantasy game, compared to the realistic game. A mediated moderation test revealed that this increase in aggression was due in part to increased player engagement with the game's content. Specifically, participants predisposed to engage with the violent game tended to behave more aggressively following game play as a function of that engagement. The findings provide supporting evidence for violent content effects and detail a novel method for assessing violent and other media content effects.

Null Effects of Game Violence, Game Difficulty, and 2D:4D Digit Ratio on Aggressive Behavior

Researchers have suggested that acute exposure to violent video games is a cause of aggressive behavior. We tested this hypothesis by using violent and nonviolent games that were closely matched, collecting a large sample, and using a single outcome. We randomly assigned 275 male undergraduates to play a first-person-shooter game modified to be either violent or less violent and hard or easy. After completing the game-play session, participants were provoked by a confederate and given an opportunity to behave aggressively. Neither game violence nor game difficulty predicted aggressive behavior. Incidentally, we found that 2D:4D digit ratio, thought to index prenatal testosterone exposure, did not predict aggressive behavior. Results do not support acute violent-game exposure and low 2D:4D ratio as causes of aggressive behavior.

How violent video games affect prosocial outcomes: A meta-analysis

How violent video games affect prosocial outcomes: A meta-analysis