Playing with Death: The Potential for Violent Video Games to Induce Mortality Salience

Mortality salience, the realization of the inevitability of death, creates intense psychological terror within humans. Terror Management Theory posits that particular behavioral patterns, such as establishing and defending a worldview, reduce this terror (Greenberg et al., 1990). Behaviors due to mortality salience are strikingly similar to behaviors seen with violent video games. Violent video games may induce mortality salience in video game players, thus some of the outcomes of violent video games may be in part due to mortality salience. This paper will provide an explanation of mortality salience and Terror Management Theory, investigate behavioral patterns surrounding mortality salience and violent video games, propose a study exploring if violent video games can induce mortality salience, and discuss implications of mortality salience within violent video games

The Effects of Displayed Violence and Game Speed in First-Person Shooters on Physiological Arousal and Aggressive Behavior

Many studies have been conducted to examine the effects of displayed violence in digital games on outcomes like aggressive behavior and physiological arousal. However, they often lack a proper manipulation of the relevant factors and control of confounding variables. In this study, the displayed violence and game speed of a recent first-person shooter game were varied systematically using the technique of modding, so that effects could be explained properly by the respective manipulations. Aggressive behavior was measured with the standardized version of the Competitive Reaction Time Task or CRTT (Ferguson et al., 2008}. Physiological arousal was operationalized with four measurements: galvanic skin response (GSR), heart rate (HR), body movement, force on mouse and keyboard. A total of N = 87 participants played in one of four game conditions (low- vs. high-violence, normal- vs. high speed) while physiological measurements were taken with finger clips, force sensors on input devices (mouse and keyboard), and a Nintendo Wii balance board on the chair they sat on. After play, their aggressive behavior was measured with the CRTT. The results of the study do not support the hypothesis that playing digital games increases aggressive behavior. There were no significant differences in GSR and HR, but with a higher game speed, participants showed less overall body movement, most likely to meet the game’s higher demands on cognitive and motor capacities. Also, higher game speed and displayed violence caused an increase in applied force on mouse and keyboard. Previous experience with digital games did not moderate any of these findings. Moreover, it provides further evidence that the CRTT should only be used in a standardized way as a measurement for aggression, if at all. Using all 7 different published (though not validated) ways to calculate levels of aggression from the raw data, “evidence” was found that playing a violent digital game increases, decreases, or does not change aggression at all. Thus, the present study does extend previous research. Firstly, it shows the methodological advantages of modding in digital game research to accomplish the principles of psychological (laboratory) experiments by manipulating relevant variables and controlling all others. It also demonstrates the test-theoretical problems of the highly diverse use of the CRTT. It provides evidence that for a meaningful interpretation of effects of displayed violence in digital games, there are other game characteristics that should be controlled for since they might have an effect on relevant outcome variables. Further research needs to identify more of those game features, and it should also improve the understanding of the different measures for physiological arousal and their interrelatedness

Criminological Self-Efficacy: Increased or Hindered From Crime TV Shows

There is an age-old question that surrounds whether or not media have an effect on its viewers. There is substantial evidence that supports the claim that violent content in media may increase relational, physical, and/or overall aggression levels. The aim of the current study is to explore the relationship between several factors that may be related to one’s belief in one’s ability (self-efficacy) to commit and get away with murder. These factors are the amount of crime TV a person watches, aggressive tendency, recklessness tendency, and potential protective factors. It is hypothesized that the more crime TV watched, the higher aggressive and recklessness tendencies and fewer protective factors, the higher their self-efficacy will be in committing and getting away with murder. The data were analyzed using multiple linear regression with amount of crime TV watched, their basic aggression level, recklessness tendencies and potential protective factors as predictors of their belief in their self-efficacy to commit and get away with murder. The results showed that the only significant predictor was amount of crime TV watched in a week, meaning people who report higher amounts of crime TV per week have higher self-efficacy scores in committing and getting away with murder. The implications of this result will be discussed

Using an implicit association test to examine the effects of violent video games on the values we place on others

The effect of exposure to violent video games on automatic devaluations of others was investigated in a sample of 337 undergraduate students. Contrary to our prediction, participants who played a violent video game did not automatically associate others with devaluation on an Implicit Association Test more than did participants who played a nonviolent game. Additionally, playing a violent game did not lead participants to automatically associate themselves more with worth than participants who played a non-violent game. However, males automatically associated themselves with worth more after playing a violent game, while females automatically associated themselves more with worth after playing a non-violent game. Furthermore, playing a violent video game led participants to experience less state empathy, less positive and more negative emotions, and less compassion. These results suggest that violent video game exposure may impair a person\u27s ability to experience the emotional aspects necessary for empathy. Results are discussed in relation to the General Aggression Model

Aggressive priming online: Facebook adverts can prime aggressive cognitions

Through the process of priming, incidental stimuli in our environments can influence our thoughts, feelings and behavior. This may be true of incidental stimuli in online environments, such as adverts on websites. Two experiments (N=325, N=331) showed that the mere presence of advertisements with violent content on a simulated Facebook page induced higher levels of aggression-related cognition in comparison to non-violent adverts (d=0.56 , d=0.71). In a subsequent word recognition task, participants primed with the violent stimuli 'remembered' more actually-unseen violence-related words than did the control participants. That is, they reported recognizing violent words they had not actually seen. However, priming with violent adverts had no effect on mood or person perception. A third correlational study (N=131) examined whether variance in the extent of priming could be attributed to individual differences in aggressiveness. Participants' aggressiveness was unrelated to their scores on the aggressive cognition measure. These studies established that website adverts with violent content could prime aggressive cognitions. Individuals differed in the extent to which they experienced the priming effect, and this was not attributable to their levels of trait aggressiveness. No effects of priming were found on either mood state or person perception

Play Together: How Watching the Cooperative Play of Violent Video Games Can Positively Influence Dyadic Relationships

Media effects research has shown that video games can have both antisocial and prosocial effects, depending on the content of the game. Individuals who play violent video games tend to display more aggressive attitudes and behaviors, while those who play games with prosocial content tend to display more prosocial, or helping, attitudes and behavior. The context in which a video game is played has also been shown to influence media effects, with competitive play leading to increased aggression while cooperative play leads to increased prosociality. However, the existing literature has not examined how these effects might influence the interpersonal relationships between those playing the video game. To test the effects of gaming context on interpersonal relationships, an experiment was conducted that compared two groups of participants exposed to two levels (competitive or cooperative) of a single factor (gaming context). In the competitive condition, participants watched gameplay footage of two individuals playing a video game competitively, while those in the cooperative condition watched gameplay footage of two individuals playing the same game cooperatively. After exposure, five dependent variables were examined to see how they differed between the two groups: state hostility, prosocial score, positive affect change, negative affect change, and change in perceived relationship quality. iii Upon initial analysis, only negative affect change was shown to significantly differ between the two conditions. However, this effect was actually due to an interaction between condition and sex. This study also identified that sex, personality, and media usage habits significantly covaried to some degree with all five dependent variables. These covariates provide evidence for how individual differences might influence the effects that result from watching a video game being played in different multiplayer contexts and, as an extension, how individual differences might influence the effects of gaming context in general

Violent video games and aggressive behavior: mortality salience and the hostile attribution bias

Research indicates that one of the most popular forms of media, violent video games can increase aggressive behavior and cognitions (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). Prior research has examined the effects of these media using the General Aggression Model (GAM; Anderson & Bushman, 2001; Bushman & Anderson, 2002). The current study examines an alternative method by which video games (and other forms of media) can encourage aggressive behaviors, via mortality salience effects. The current study used a 2 (mortality salience vs absence) x 2 (violent video games vs nonviolent video games) experimental design to examine the role of mortality salience and violent video game primes on aggressive cognitions and endorsed harm towards out-group members. Participants were either primed with mortality salience (or not), viewed footage from a violent (experimental) or non-violent (control) game, and completed dependent measures assessing aggressive cognitions and violence towards out-group members. Results indicate that participants exposed to violent media and mortality salience primes endorse more harm towards out-group members, and exhibit more aggressive cognitions. Emotion regulation moderates the relationship between hostile attribution biases and aggressive cognitions, as well as the relation between death-thought accessibility and aggressive cognitions, providing a protective effect