Submitted By: Anupam Jena and Balaji Krishnan
Introduction
In this digital playground where the world is exposed to tons of video games at his hands, we were quite curious as how, this new world age of gaming, affects the behaviour of any human. Entertainment media affects our lives, accept it or not. There are good theoretical reasons to expect that violent video games will have similar, and possibly larger, effects on aggression.
About 25 years ago, when video games first appeared, popular games were simple and apparently harmless. In the 1980s, arcade games like Pac-Man became dominant. In Pac-Man, a yellow orb with a mouth raced around the screen chomping up ghosts and goblins. At this point, some eyebrows were raised. The most popular video game of 1993 was Mortal Kombat. This game features realistically rendered humanoid characters engaging in battle, killing opponents. 33 popular Sega and Nintendo games were sampled and found that nearly 80% of the games were violent in nature. Interestingly, it was also found that 21% of these games portrayed violence towards women. But from another viewpoint, video game playing may be a useful means of coping with pent-up and aggressive energies. In brief, what is needed is basic theory guided research on the effects of playing violent video games.
Study
We believe that becoming desensitized to violence leads to increased human aggression. According to a study, 70 young adult participants were randomly assigned to play either a nonviolent or a violent video game for 25 minutes. Immediately afterwards, the researchers measured brain responses as participants viewed a series of neutral photos, such as a man on a bike, and violent photos, such as a man holding a gun in another man's mouth. Finally, participants competed against an opponent in a task that allowed them to give their opponent a controllable blast of loud noise. The level of noise blast the participants set for their opponent was the measure of aggression.
The researchers found that participants who played one of several popular violent games, such as "Call of Duty", "Hitman", "Killzone" and "Grand Theft Auto" set louder noise blasts for their opponents during the competitive task, that is, they were more aggressive, than participants who played a nonviolent game. In addition, for participants that had not played many violent video games before completing the study, playing a violent game in the lab caused a reduced brain response to the photos of violence, an indicator of desensitization. Moreover, this reduced brain response predicted participants' aggression levels: the smaller the brain response to violent photos, the more aggressive participants were. Participants who had already spent a lot of time playing violent video games before the study showed small brain response to the violent photos, regardless of which type of game they played.
In Kirsh's Experiment, Kirsh randomly assigned third- and fourth-grade children to play either a violent video game (Mortal Kombat) or a nonviolent game (NBA Jam). They then listened to five ambiguous provocation stories. In each, they were told to imagine that they were the story character to whom a negative event happened, apparently caused by a same-sex peer. They then answered six questions about each story. Three of the questions assessed future expectations— about their next action, punishment of the perpetrator, and emotional reaction of the perpetrator. Only the first of these three expectation questions yielded a statistically reliable result. Children who had just played Mortal Kombat expected to behave more aggressively than those who had played NBA Jam.
Theory
Several psychological theories are relevant to the possible role of video game violence in youth aggression. Six such theories were identified and used to predict either increased or decreased aggression after violent video game play.
First, Social Learning Theory suggests that at least some aggression is learned by observing, and then by imitating, a model who acts aggressively. Aggressive video game characters might serve as models for aggressive behavior. Further, rewards such as higher points and longer playing times within the game and increased status accorded by peers for success at the game could provide a motivation for increased aggression by reinforcing the behavior.
Second, an Arousal Theory predicts that, if the video game player has an aggressive disposition or is angered, playing an arousing video game might cause increased aggression owing to a generalized increase in energy and intensity. According to this theory, violent video games would be expected to increase aggression only in the presence of anger from some other cause.
Third, a Cognitive “Priming” Theory and a Social Information-Processing Model suggest that violent video games will activate related cognitive structures, making it more likely that other incoming information would be processed in an “aggression” framework, possibly increasing aggressive behavior. For example, someone for whom thoughts of aggression have been evoked might be more likely to interpret an ambiguous behavior as aggressive and respond accordingly.
Fourth, Catharsis Theory suggests that violent video games can provide a safe outlet for aggressive thoughts and feelings.
Fifth, Drive-Reduction Theory suggests, similar to catharsis theory, that violent video games may be useful in managing aggression. According to this theory, highly stressed or frustrated individuals may play violent video games to reestablish emotional equilibrium through arousal or relaxation.
A sixth theory, the General Affective Aggression Model (GAAM), integrates social learning, arousal, and cognitive processing theories and includes individual variables (such as aggressive personality) as well as situational variables (such as video game play). According to this model, whenever exposure to violent media primes aggressive thoughts, increases hostile feelings, or increases arousal, short-term increases in aggression would be expected.
Summary
Violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations. The effect of violent video games appears to be cognitive in nature. In the short term, playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts. Longer-term effects are likely to be longer lasting as well, as the player learns and practices new aggression-related scripts that become more and more accessible for use when real-life conflict situations arise. If repeated exposure to violent video games does indeed lead to the creation and heightened accessibility of a variety of aggressive knowledge structures, thus effectively altering the person's basic personality structure, the consequent changes in everyday social interactions may also lead to consistent increases in aggressive affect. The active nature of the learning environment of the video game suggests that this medium is potentially more dangerous than the more heavily investigated TV and movie media.
With the recent trend toward greater realism and more graphic violence in video games and the rising popularity of these games, consumers of violent video games (and parents of consumers) should be aware of these potential risks. Recent events in the news, such as the link between teenage murderers in Colorado and violent video game play, have sparked public debate about video game violence effects.
Introduction
In this digital playground where the world is exposed to tons of video games at his hands, we were quite curious as how, this new world age of gaming, affects the behaviour of any human. Entertainment media affects our lives, accept it or not. There are good theoretical reasons to expect that violent video games will have similar, and possibly larger, effects on aggression.
About 25 years ago, when video games first appeared, popular games were simple and apparently harmless. In the 1980s, arcade games like Pac-Man became dominant. In Pac-Man, a yellow orb with a mouth raced around the screen chomping up ghosts and goblins. At this point, some eyebrows were raised. The most popular video game of 1993 was Mortal Kombat. This game features realistically rendered humanoid characters engaging in battle, killing opponents. 33 popular Sega and Nintendo games were sampled and found that nearly 80% of the games were violent in nature. Interestingly, it was also found that 21% of these games portrayed violence towards women. But from another viewpoint, video game playing may be a useful means of coping with pent-up and aggressive energies. In brief, what is needed is basic theory guided research on the effects of playing violent video games.
Study
We believe that becoming desensitized to violence leads to increased human aggression. According to a study, 70 young adult participants were randomly assigned to play either a nonviolent or a violent video game for 25 minutes. Immediately afterwards, the researchers measured brain responses as participants viewed a series of neutral photos, such as a man on a bike, and violent photos, such as a man holding a gun in another man's mouth. Finally, participants competed against an opponent in a task that allowed them to give their opponent a controllable blast of loud noise. The level of noise blast the participants set for their opponent was the measure of aggression.
The researchers found that participants who played one of several popular violent games, such as "Call of Duty", "Hitman", "Killzone" and "Grand Theft Auto" set louder noise blasts for their opponents during the competitive task, that is, they were more aggressive, than participants who played a nonviolent game. In addition, for participants that had not played many violent video games before completing the study, playing a violent game in the lab caused a reduced brain response to the photos of violence, an indicator of desensitization. Moreover, this reduced brain response predicted participants' aggression levels: the smaller the brain response to violent photos, the more aggressive participants were. Participants who had already spent a lot of time playing violent video games before the study showed small brain response to the violent photos, regardless of which type of game they played.
In Kirsh's Experiment, Kirsh randomly assigned third- and fourth-grade children to play either a violent video game (Mortal Kombat) or a nonviolent game (NBA Jam). They then listened to five ambiguous provocation stories. In each, they were told to imagine that they were the story character to whom a negative event happened, apparently caused by a same-sex peer. They then answered six questions about each story. Three of the questions assessed future expectations— about their next action, punishment of the perpetrator, and emotional reaction of the perpetrator. Only the first of these three expectation questions yielded a statistically reliable result. Children who had just played Mortal Kombat expected to behave more aggressively than those who had played NBA Jam.
Theory
Several psychological theories are relevant to the possible role of video game violence in youth aggression. Six such theories were identified and used to predict either increased or decreased aggression after violent video game play.
First, Social Learning Theory suggests that at least some aggression is learned by observing, and then by imitating, a model who acts aggressively. Aggressive video game characters might serve as models for aggressive behavior. Further, rewards such as higher points and longer playing times within the game and increased status accorded by peers for success at the game could provide a motivation for increased aggression by reinforcing the behavior.
Second, an Arousal Theory predicts that, if the video game player has an aggressive disposition or is angered, playing an arousing video game might cause increased aggression owing to a generalized increase in energy and intensity. According to this theory, violent video games would be expected to increase aggression only in the presence of anger from some other cause.
Third, a Cognitive “Priming” Theory and a Social Information-Processing Model suggest that violent video games will activate related cognitive structures, making it more likely that other incoming information would be processed in an “aggression” framework, possibly increasing aggressive behavior. For example, someone for whom thoughts of aggression have been evoked might be more likely to interpret an ambiguous behavior as aggressive and respond accordingly.
Fourth, Catharsis Theory suggests that violent video games can provide a safe outlet for aggressive thoughts and feelings.
Fifth, Drive-Reduction Theory suggests, similar to catharsis theory, that violent video games may be useful in managing aggression. According to this theory, highly stressed or frustrated individuals may play violent video games to reestablish emotional equilibrium through arousal or relaxation.
A sixth theory, the General Affective Aggression Model (GAAM), integrates social learning, arousal, and cognitive processing theories and includes individual variables (such as aggressive personality) as well as situational variables (such as video game play). According to this model, whenever exposure to violent media primes aggressive thoughts, increases hostile feelings, or increases arousal, short-term increases in aggression would be expected.
Summary
Violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations. The effect of violent video games appears to be cognitive in nature. In the short term, playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts. Longer-term effects are likely to be longer lasting as well, as the player learns and practices new aggression-related scripts that become more and more accessible for use when real-life conflict situations arise. If repeated exposure to violent video games does indeed lead to the creation and heightened accessibility of a variety of aggressive knowledge structures, thus effectively altering the person's basic personality structure, the consequent changes in everyday social interactions may also lead to consistent increases in aggressive affect. The active nature of the learning environment of the video game suggests that this medium is potentially more dangerous than the more heavily investigated TV and movie media.
With the recent trend toward greater realism and more graphic violence in video games and the rising popularity of these games, consumers of violent video games (and parents of consumers) should be aware of these potential risks. Recent events in the news, such as the link between teenage murderers in Colorado and violent video game play, have sparked public debate about video game violence effects.
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