Video games and aggression
Humanity has a long history of media bashing, blaming media for seducing the innocent or brutalizing society. First, picture books, later comics, rock and roll, television, portable music players, tamagotchi, or most recently, video games have been suspected to be harmful — especially for children and teenagers. Although most of the dystopian scenarios painted were no doubt exaggerated, decades of research demonstrates that media can in fact influence the beliefs, attitudes, and behavior of individuals as well as society at large. However, effects are not primarily related to the media format but rather to media contents. Effects can be positive as well as negative, depending on what content the media deliver. The same is true for video games, a generic term that includes harmless puzzle games, sports games, strategy or adventure games, role playing games, and violent games. No doubt any claim of general video game effects cannot be serious. However, the hypotheses that certain violent video games may lead to antisocial effects warrants attention for 3 reasons:
- The top selling segment of video games, first-person shooters, contain extremely violent depictions that are becoming increasingly photorealistic and anthropomorphic at the same time.
- The interactive nature of video games allows users to become more intimately related to the content and detached from real world.
- Virtual violence often is justified through the game logic: Players cannot win without performing violent actions.
Youth advocates long have requested politicians to become aware of the risk involved in violent video games, with slow, but increasing success. At the same time, researchers around the world have combined scientific efforts to elicit empirical evidence as to whether violent video games result in antisocial short-term or long-term effects. So far, a collection of approximately 30 studies indicates rather negative short- as well as long-term effects of virtual violence. However, methodological problems and incomparability of genre and content still leave numerous questions unanswered, which require additional research. ASC Games contributes to this effort with a series of studies devoted to virtual violence and aggression attempting to answer for example the following questions:
- Have video games become increasingly violent?
- Is violence in video games associated with their economic success?
- Why do people appreciate virtual violence in games?
- To what extent are virtual and real life aggression equivalent?
- Is virtual violence associated with factual fear?
- Can the causal effect of virtual violence be observed with neuroscience methodology?
Readings
Ritterfeld, U., & Hünnerkopf, M. (in press). Medien und medienvermittelte Umwelten [Media and mediated environments]. In E. D. Lantermann, & V. Linneweber (Hrsg.), Umweltpsychologie. Enzyklopädie der Psychologie, Vol. 2. Göttingen: Hogrefe.
Smith, S. (in press). Perps, pimps, & provocative clothing: Examining negative content patterns in video games. In P. Vorderer, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Playing computer games – Motives, responses, and consequences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Smith, S. (n.d.). Relationship between video game violence and economic success.
Weber, R., Ritterfeld, U., & Kostygina, A. (in press). Aggression and hostility as effects of playing violent games. In P. Vorderer, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Playing video games - Motives, responses, and consequences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Weber, R., Ritterfeld, U., & Mathiak, K. (2006). Does playing violent video games induce aggression? Empirical evidence of a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Media Psychology, 1, 39-60.