Traces of Violent Video Gameplay in Adolescent Development

The possible effects of violent video gameplay on adolescents are intensely debated, highlighting the difficulties in the violent media research. The current dissertation posits that media may sort effects in more subtle and less direct ways than thus far studied. It employed a novel perspective to investigate the possible effects of violent video games on adolescents’ social outcomes, by looking beyond aggression and by focusing on four social-cognitive skills: emotion recognition, inhibitory control, perspective-taking, and empathy for pain. The development of these skills is particularly salient during early adolescence. If such development would be disturbed by exposure to violent video games, it may underlie antisocial behavior. Integration of insights from media psychology, developmental psychology, and neuroscience led to an expectation that exposure to violent video games would be negatively related to and would have a negative impact on the four social-cognitive skills. To investigate how exposure to violent video games may influence these social-cognitive skills, we took a multi-level approach, by investigating possible effects on a self-report level (questionnaires), a behavioral level (reaction times), and a brain level (ERP responses). To test our hypotheses, we performed four studies employing various study designs: correlational, experimental, and quasi-experimental in different adolescent samples and in one young adult sample. The outcomes of this project indicated that the possible impact of violent video game exposure on adolescents’ social-cognitive skills is limited and may be observed only in terms of short-term effects: less accurate perspective-taking and lower empathy for pain reactions measured immediately after the game. Further, habitual exposure to violent video games was related to lower empathy for pain reactions, but only in young adults, not in adolescents. Contrary to our expectations, more frequent habitual exposure to violent video games was related to better inhibitory control over emotional expressions in adolescents. Moreover, we also tested the possible effects of exposure to antisocial content in other media, beyond video games, and found that it was related to less accurate emotion recognition and lower empathy for pain reactions in adolescents. While this project brings new insights which could enrich scientific and public debates on violent media effects on youth, future longitudinal studies are needed to better understand possible ‘traces’ of violent video games in adolescent development, considering individual developmental trajectories and differences between young people

Dampak Permainan Kekerasan Online Terhadap Karakter Anak: Sistematik Literatur Review

Online games are played through internet connection on various devices, either alone or collaboratively with players from around the world. This research aims to explore the impact of violence in online games on children's behavior and mental health. The research methodology is literature review, using sources from Google Scholar and articles published in Scopus- and Sinta-accredited journals. Violence in online games refers to graphic or action scenes that depict violence, such as weapon fighting, physical violence, harsh language, or other brutal acts. Some games display violence explicitly and realistically, such as blood, broken bones, or sexual violence, while in other games, violence is implicitly and less visible. The presence of violent content in online games may have different impacts on children, but generally can affect their behavior, character, and mental health. Therefore, it is crucial for parents and caregivers to limit the time spent playing online games and choose games that are safe and do not contain violent content for children. The negative impact of violent online games includes increased aggression, reduced empathy, decreased mental health, distraction, and worsened behavior. However, there are also positive impacts of violent online games, such as enhancing social and cognitive skills, improving multitasking ability, and boosting creativity. It is important for parents and caregivers to monitor and regulate their children's online game time, and choose games appropriate for their age and maturity level that do not contain violent content

Game-Based Teaching Methodology and Empathy in Ethics Education

This article describes the experience of a group of educators participating in a graduate course in ethics. Playing role playing games and the work accompanying that play were the predominate methodology employed in the course. An accompanying research study investigated the lived experiences of the course participants. Themes that emerged from interview data included student engagement, participants’ applications, empathy development, and reactions to professor modeling

Impact of game mode in multi-user serious games for upper limb rehabilitation: a within-person randomized trial on engagement and social involvement

Background: Serious games have been increasingly used for motor rehabilitation. However, it is not well known how different game features can be used to impact specific skills properly. Here, we study how the mode (competitive, co-active, collaborative) in which a multi-user game is presented impacts engagement and social involvement. Methods: We collected data from 20 pairs of community-dwelling older adults (71.5 ± 8.7 years) in a study following a within-persons design. The participants performed a two-player upper limb rehabilitation game with three conditions (Competitive, Co-active, and Collaborative modes). Engagement and social involvement were assessed through the Core Module and Social Presence Module, respectively, from the Game Experience Questionnaire. To infer the impact of personality and cognitive function, users answered the International Personality Item Pool (short version) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, respectively. Results: Results show that the Collaborative game mode promotes more social involvement when compared to Competitive and Co-active modes. This result is mostly explained by those participants with higher cognitive skills, and those that are more extrovert. Extrovert participants feel more empathy and are behaviorally more involved when playing the Collaborative mode. Also, the Collaborative mode is shown to be appropriate to promote interaction with participants that previously had a distant relationship, while the Competitive mode seems to be more beneficial to promote empathy between players with a closer relationship. Conclusions: The Collaborative game mode elicited significantly higher social involvement in terms of Empathy, Positive Affect, and Behavioral Involvement. Hence, this game mode seems to be the most adequate choice to be used in multiplayer rehabilitation settings, where social interaction is intended.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Violent video games and attitudes towards victims of crime: an empirical study among youth

Previous research has indicated that playing violent video games may be associated with an increase in acceptance of violence and positive attitudes towards perpetrators of crime. This study is the first to investigate the relationship between playing violent video games and attitudes towards victims of crime. A total of 206 young people (aged 12-24 years) completed measures of attitudes towards victims and violent video game exposure. The results suggest that exposure to violent video games is associated with less concern being reported for victims of crime. Young people who play more violent video games reported less concern for general victims and for culpable victims, and these effects cannot be explained by gender or age differences. The results are discussed in relation to relevant research in the area, along with recommendations for future research

Experiencing Poverty in an Online Simulation: Effects on Players’ Beliefs, Attitudes and Behaviors about Poverty

Digital simulations are increasingly used to educate about the causes and effects of poverty, and inspire action to alleviate it. Drawing on research about attributions of poverty, subjective well-being, and relative income, this experimental study assesses the effects of an online poverty simulation (entitled Spent) on participants’ beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Results show that, compared with a control group, Spent players donated marginally more money to a charity serving the poor and expressed higher support for policies benefitting the poor, but were less likely to take immediate political action by signing an online petition to support a higher minimum wage. Spent players also expressed greater subjective well-being than the control group, but this was not associated with increased policy support or donations. Spent players who experienced greater presence (perceived realism of the simulation) had higher levels of empathy, which contributed to attributing poverty to structural causes and support for anti-poverty policies. We draw conclusions for theory about the psychological experience of playing online poverty simulations, and for how they could be designed to stimulate charity and support for anti-poverty policies

Dual-processing altruism

Altruism refers to an other-benefiting behavior that is costly but bears no direct profit to oneself. At least three different forms can be distinguished: help giving, altruistic punishment, and moral courage. We investigated the differential impact of two thinking modes, intuitive (System 1) and rational (System 2), on these three altruistic behaviors. Situational (state-related) thinking style was manipulated via experimental instructions and generally preferred thinking style (trait-related) was assessed via questionnaires. We found that of the subjectively preferred thinking styles (trait), faith in intuition (System 1) promoted sharing and altruistic punishment, whereas need for cognition (System 2) promoted volunteering in a situation that required moral courage. By contrast, we did not find a significant effect of situational thinking style (state) on any of the altruistic behaviors, although manipulation checks were positive. Results elucidate the affective-motivational underpinnings of different types of altruistic behaviors