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

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 606-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Hilgard ◽  
Christopher R. Engelhardt ◽  
Jeffrey N. Rouder ◽  
Ines L. Segert ◽  
Bruce D. Bartholow
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Aggressive Behavior ◽  
Digit Ratio ◽  
Acute Exposure ◽  
First Person ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Prenatal Testosterone ◽  
Play Session ◽  
Game Violence ◽  
First Person Shooter

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.

Hostile and Hardened? An Experimental Study on (De-)Sensitization to Violence and Suffering Through Playing Video Games

2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frithjof Staude-Müller ◽  
Thomas Bliesener ◽  
Stefanie Luthman
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Physiological Measurement ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Downward Spiral ◽  
Spiral Model ◽  
Post Hoc ◽  
Game Violence ◽  
First Person Shooter ◽  
Physiological Reactions

This study tests whether playing violent video games leads to desensitization and increased cardiovascular responding. In a laboratory experiment, 42 men spent 20 min playing either a high- or low-violence version of a “first-person shooter” game. Arousal (heart rate, respiration rate) was measured continuously. After playing the game, emotional responses to aversive and aggressive stimuli - pictures from Lang, Bradley, and Cuthbert’s (1999) International Affective Picture System - were assessed with self-ratings and physiological measurement (skin conductance). Results showed no differences in the judgments of emotional responses to the stimuli. However, different effects of game violence emerged in the physiological reactions to the different types of stimulus material. Participants in the high-violence condition showed significantly weaker reactions (desensitization) to aversive stimuli and reacted significantly more strongly (sensitization) to aggressive cues. No support was found for the arousal hypothesis. Post-hoc analyses are used to discuss possible moderating influences of gaming experience and player’s trait aggressiveness in terms of the General Aggression Model ( Anderson & Bushman, 2001 ) and the Downward Spiral Model ( Slater, Henry, Swaim, & Anderson, 2003 ).

scholarly journals Always Already Monsters—BioShock’s (2007) ‘Splicers’ as Computational Others

Nordlit ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaroslav Švelch
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
Computational Algorithms ◽  
First Person ◽  
First Person Shooter ◽  
Game Representation ◽  
Embedded Narrative

The article explores the manufacturing of monsters in video games, using the case of the influential 2007 first-person shooter BioShock, and ‘splicers’—its most numerous, zombie-like enemies. I combine two methodological perspectives on the ‘manufacturing’ of splicers by analyzing [a] the title’s developer commentary and other official paratexts to trace the design of splicers, and [b] the game’s embedded narrative to reconstruct the diegetic backstory of splicers. I argue that video game enemies, including splicers, are ‘computational others’, who may appear human on the level of representation, but whose behavior is machinic, and driven by computational algorithms. To justify the paradoxical relationship between their human-like representation and machinic behavior, BioShock includes an elaborate narrative that explains how the citizens of the underwater city of Rapture were dehumanized and transformed into hostile splicers. The narrative of dehumanization, explored following Haslam’s dehumanization theory (2006), includes [a] transforming splicers into atomized creatures by depriving them of political power and social bonds, [b] creating fungible and interchangeable enemies through splicers’ masks and bodily disintegration, [c] justifying splicers’ blindness to context and their simplistic behavior by portraying them as mentally unstable addicts. The article concludes that all video game enemies are inherently monstrous, and that critique of video game representation should focus on how games fail to make monsters human, rather than how games render humans monstrous or dehumanized.

scholarly journals Games of Drones: The Uneasy Future of the Soldier-Hero in Call of Duty: Black Ops II

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carrie Elizabeth Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
First Person ◽  
Combat Experience ◽  
Logical Conclusion ◽  
The Future ◽  
First Person Shooter ◽  
The U.S

In this article, I argue that the first-person shooter video game, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, reflects the U.S. military‟s transition as it reimagines the soldier‟s role in war. In the age of drone technology, this role shifts from a position of strength to one of relative weakness. Although video games that feature future combat often “function as virtual enactments and endorsements for developing military technologies,” Black Ops II offers a surprisingly complex vision of the future of drones and U.S. soldiers (Smicker 2009: 107). To explore how the game reflects a contemporary vision of the U.S. military, I weave together a close textual reading of two levels in Black Ops II with actual accounts from drone pilots and politicians that illuminate the nature of drone combat. Although there are moments in Black Ops II in which avatars combat enemies with first-hand firepower, the experience of heroic diegetic violence is superseded by a combat experience defined by powerlessness, boredom, and ambiguous pleasure. The shift of the soldier from imposing hero to a banal figure experiences its logical conclusion in Unmanned, an independent video game that foregrounds the mundane, nonviolent nature of drone piloting. Instead of training soldiers to withstand emotionally devastating experiences of death and violence first-hand (or to physically enact such violence), games like Black Ops II and Unmanned train actual and potential soldiers to tolerate monotony and disempowerment.

Violent Video Games and Their Relation to Aggressive Behaviour in Late Childhood in Pakistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 47-59
Author(s):  
Mujeeba Ashraf
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
American Literature ◽  
Aggressive Behaviour ◽  
Role Play ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Late Childhood ◽  
First Person ◽  
Violent Video Games ◽  
Play Action ◽  
First Person Shooter

Most of the European and American literature suggests that playing violent video games can increase aggression in real-life situations in children, but the extent to which this is true in Pakistan is largely unknown. This is a correlational study that explored whether the amount of time spent playing violent themed video games was associated with aggressive behaviour and whether playing different kinds of violent themed video games could predict aggressive behaviour in late childhood. The sample of 100 children (mean age 13.37) was taken, and children were asked to fill in a diary when they played videogames for a week. The results revealed the time spent playing violent video games (role play, action and fighting, and first-person shooter) was positively correlated with aggression; however, only role play and first-person shooter video games were positive predictors of aggressive behaviour. Current research suggests that if children spend more than 30 minutes a day playing violent video games, their chances of learning aggressive behaviour may increase.

Video Game Violence and Interactivity: Effect or Equivalence?

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-244
Author(s):  
René Weber ◽  
Katharina M Behr ◽  
Jacob T Fisher ◽  
Chelsea Lonergan ◽  
Christian Quebral
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Aggressive Behavior ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Game Play ◽  
Violent Video Game ◽  
Video Game Violence ◽  
Violent Content ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Player Skill ◽  
Game Violence

Abstract The effect of exposure to violent video game content on aggression is intensely debated. Meta-analyses have produced widely varying estimates as to the effect (or non-effect) of violent video games on subsequent aggressive thoughts and behaviors. Recent work suggests that interactivity and player skill may play key roles in moderating the effects of violent content in video games on aggression. This study investigates the effects of violence, interactivity, and player skill on mild aggressive behavior using a custom-developed first-person shooter game allowing for high levels of experimental control. We conduct effect and equivalence tests with effect size assumptions drawn from prominent meta-analyses in the video game violence literature, finding that aggressive behavior following violent video game play is statistically equivalent to that observed following non-violent game play. We also observe an interaction between violent game content, player skill, and interactivity. When player skill matched the interactivity of the game, violent content led to an increase in aggressive behavior, whereas when player skill did not match the interactivity of the game, violent content decreased aggressive behavior. This interaction is probed using a multiverse analysis incorporating both classical significance testing and Bayesian analyses.

scholarly journals Violent acts ((Online)Games)

10.34778/3d ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Wulf ◽  
Daniel Possler ◽  
Johannes Breuer
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
First Person ◽  
Cohen’S Kappa ◽  
Cohen's Kappa ◽  
Violent Content ◽  
Content Analyses ◽  
Violent Acts ◽  
First Person Shooter

The depiction of violence is the focus of many content analyses of video games. Typically, the occurrence and nature of acts of violence or aggression are coded to quantify the amount of violent content in a particular game.   Field of application/theoretical foundation: Quantifying the amount of violence in video games can inform media effects research that looks at the relationship between the exposure to violent video game content and aggression. This allows for more precise measures and hypotheses than simply coding a game as violent or nonviolent which is often done in experimental research in this area. What is commonly coded in content analyses of violent content in video games is the number and nature of aggressive or violent actions. Specific attributes of these acts, such as their realism, graphicness or (narrative) justification (Tamborini et al., 2013) are only considered in a few studies (e.g., Lachlan et al., 2005). While the focus in most studies is on acts of physical aggression/violence in interactions with/between game characters, there are also studies that have investigated verbal aggression between players (Holz Ivory et al., 2017).   References/combination with other methods of data collection: Content analysis of violence in video games can be complemented by survey data asking players about the games they play and their rating of the degree of violence they contain and/or age rating from institutions like ESRB or PEGI (see Busching et al., 2015).   Example studies Coding material Measure Operationalization Unit(s) of analysis Source(s) (reported reliability of coding) Video recording of playing session Number and duration of violent interactions (attacking and being attacked) (a) combat: “periods of playing time in which a player [i.e., the character controlled by the player] fires his gun” (p. 1021) (b) “under attack–the player is attacked by an opponent before or after using his own weapon” (p. 1022)  Distinct phases/events in up to 12 minutes of solo play of the first-person shooter game Tactical Ops: Assault on Terror Weber et al., 2009 (Cohen’s kappa = 0.81) Video recording of the whole game Depictions of injury (present/not present) “An injured or dead character lying on the ground or remnants of blood from a known violent act” (p. 403) 1-second intervals of the game recordings Thompson, Tepichin, & Haninger, 2006 (Cohen’s kappa = 0.93) Video recording of the whole game Depictions of violent acts (present/not present) “Intentional acts in which the aggressor causes or attempts to cause physical injury or death to another character” (p. 403) 1-second intervals of the game recordings Thompson, Tepichin, & Haninger, 2006 (Cohen’s kappa = 0.93) Video recording of the first 10 minutes of gameplay Depicted harm/pain (none, mild, moderate, extreme) in aggressive exchanges between in-game characters “physical injury or incapacitation of the victim” (p. 64) “an aggressive exchange that occurs between a perpetrator (P) engaging in a particular type of act (A) against a target (T)” (p. 63) Smith, Lachlan, & Tamborini, 2003 (coefficient according to “Potter and Levine-Donnerstein's (1 999) reliability formula for multiple coders”, p. 65: 0.87)   References Busching, R., Gentile, D. A., Krahé, B., Möller, I., Khoo, A., Walsh, D. A., & Anderson, C. A. (2015). Testing the reliability and validity of different measures of violent video game use in the United States, Singapore, and Germany. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 4(2), 97–111. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000004 Holz Ivory, A., Ivory, J. D., & Wu, W. (2017). Harsh Words and Deeds: Systematic Content Analyses of Offensive User Behavior in the Virtual Environments of Online First-Person Shooter Games. Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, 10(2), 19. Lachlan, K. A., Smith, S. L., & Tamborini, R. (2005). Models for aggressive behavior: The attributes of violent characters in popular video games. Communication Studies, 56(4), 313–329. https://doi.org/10.1080/10510970500319377 Smith, S. L., Lachlan, K. A., & Tamborini, R. (2003). Popular video games: Quantifying the presentation of violence and its context. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 47(1), 58–76. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4701_4 Tamborini, R., Weber, R., Bowman, N. D., Eden, A., & Skalski, P. (2013). “Violence is a many-splintered thing”: The importance of realism, justification, and graphicness in understanding perceptions of and preferences for violent films and video games. Projections, 7(1), 100–118. https://doi.org/10.3167/proj.2013.070108 Thompson, K. M., Tepichin, K., & Haninger, K. (2006). Content and ratings of mature-rated video games. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 160(4), 402–410. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.160.4.402 Weber, R., Behr, K.-M., Tamborini, R., Ritterfeld, U., & Mathiak, K. (2009). What Do We Really Know About First-Person-Shooter Games? An Event-Related, High-Resolution Content Analysis. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 14(4), 1016–1037. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01479.x

scholarly journals Game violence, game difficulty, and 2D:4D digit ratio as predictors of aggressive behavior

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joseph B. Hilgard
Keyword(s):  
Aggressive Behavior ◽  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Bayesian Model ◽  
Model Comparison ◽  
Digit Ratio ◽  
Experimental Control ◽  
Bayesian Model Comparison ◽  
Statistical Precision ◽  
Alternative Hypotheses ◽  
Game Violence

Previous research efforts have sought to determine whether violent video games cause increases in aggressive behavior. The resulting literature is controversial. Those finding the effect may not have the desired degree of experimental control, while those not finding the effect may not always have the required statistical precision. Game difficulty is also thought to potentially cause changes in aggression. Finally, prenatal testosterone exposure, as measured by the ratio of lengths of the index and ring fingers (2D:4D digit ratio), is thought to cause dispositional increases in aggressive behavior. In the present research, game violence and game difficulty were manipulated in a tightly-controlled modified-game paradigm. Participants played a game, were provoked, and then had an opportunity to aggress against another participant in the study. Neither game violence nor game difficulty was found to influence aggressive behavior in a theory-consistent way, and Bayesian model comparison techniques favored the null hypothesis over all theory-derived alternative hypotheses. Similarly, 2D:4D ratio did not predict aggressive behavior, either alone or in interaction with the other study variables. The results suggest that brief exposure to violent or difficult games does not influence aggressive behavior when game stimuli are closely matched, and furthermore, that 2D:4D digit ratio does not predict aggression.

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