Running head: EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 1 Exposure to Effects of Violent Video Games: Desensitization Valentine Anton Algoma University
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 2 Abstract Many individuals play video games, whether on consoles, computers, phones or tablets. One purpose of video game play is so people can relax and have fun, or compete against other individuals whether they are right beside each other or on the other side of the world. However, there are public concerns over violence in video games, particularly following news coverage of tragic events in which the offenders are linked with violent video games. I examined whether exposure to a violent video game would desensitize participants to later scenes of violence. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: playing a violent video game, playing a non-violent video game or playing no game at all. Following game play, participants viewed violent video clips and their perceptions of these clips were assessed. After receiving the results however, there seems to be no distinction between the three conditions, and that all results were much similar.
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 3 Introduction Violence in video games may affect individuals and the ones closest to them. An effect of violence in video games is desensitization. About 85% of games contain violence which includes physical abuse and/or force intended to hurt or kill, and half are serious actions such as murder, rape and abduction (Carnagey, Anderson, & Bushman, 2007). The effect of violent television exposure is also a significant factor when observing young children portraying violent acts later in life, and it has a much more significant effect than abusive parents, exposure to antisocial peers, the effects of low IQ, or being from a broken home (Carnagey et al., 2007). Most people assume that desensitization is some sort of an increase in aggressive behavior, a reduction in physiological arousal to real life violence and/or a reduction in likelihood of helping a violence victim (Carnagey et al., 2007). Desensitization is a reduction in emotion related physiological reactivity, to real violence (Carnagey et al., 2007). Research shows that video games increases aggressive thoughts, feelings, physiological behaviors (e.g., increase in heart rate or breathing) and aggressive behaviors, but no early study had actually demonstrated that exposure to video game violence can increase desensitization, that is, decrease physiological arousal to violence in the real world (Carnagey et al., 2007). The articles that will be reviewed focus on how violent video games may cause desensitization as well as how prosocial games can reduce aggressive behavior and cognition. The effects of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real life violence indicate that the general public assumes that desensitization is: (a) an increase in aggressive behavior, (b) a reduction in physiological arousal to real life violence and (c) a reduction in likelihood of helping a violence victim (Carnagey et al., 2007). For valid results, four experimental characteristics are necessary: (1) random assignment to violent and nonviolent
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 4 media exposure groups; (2) use of violent and nonviolent entertainment media that are equivalent on various nonviolent aspects; (3) use of emotion-related physiological indicators as the dependent variable; and (4) use of real violence as the emotion provoking stimulus in the dependent variable assessment (Carnagey et al., 2007). This study done by Carnagey et al (2007) covered all those requirements, by first randomly assigning the participants to play either a violent or nonviolent game, then viewed a ten minute tape containing scenes of real violence while their heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR) were monitored. Their hypothesis was that violent video game players would show less physiological arousal in response to reallife violence than nonviolent game players (Carnagey et al., 2007). The participants were all tested individually, by first having their HR and GSR measured, then distributing the nine-item Physical Aggression subscale of the Aggression Questionnaire (Carnagey et al., 2007). The participants played either a violent game (Carmageddon, Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat and Future Cop) or a nonviolent game (Glider Pro, 3D Pinball, 3D Munch man and Tetra Madness) and four were used to make the findings more generalizable and assure for equality. After taking HR and GSR measurements, participants were shown a ten minute videotape of real violence in four contexts: courtroom outbursts, police confrontations, shootings and prison fights, followed by another HR and GSR measurement and ended with participants rating the games on factors such as frustrating, fun, absorbing, boring and exciting (Carnagey et al., 2007). The results showed that participants were similar before and after playing the violent video game, but after watching the ten minute video tape, participants that played nonviolent video games had higher HR and GSR than participants who played violent video games. Carnagey et al (2007) concluded that the present experiment demonstrated that violent video game exposure can cause desensitization to real-life violence and that violent game players were less physiologically
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 5 aroused than the nonviolent game players, because the violent ones habituated to the violence (Carnagey et al., 2007). However, by simply observing the influence video game has, we lose sight of other factors that could be beneficial to this area, such as the effect desensitization has on men and women alike. Bartholow and Anderson (2002) conducted a study to observe the effects on violent video games on aggressive behavior based on participant sex. The hypothesis stated that playing violent video games would result in more aggression than playing nonviolent video games and that this effect would be larger in men than women. Participants were randomly assigned either a violent or nonviolent game to play for ten minutes and then their reaction time to auditory tones was tested. There were two phases to the experiment, the first being the participant setting a noise blast for their partner, and the second phase was that they would be on the receiving end of the noise blast. The results showed that playing violent video games would increase aggressive behavior (Bartholow & Anderson, 2002). The findings also showed that young men were more affected by violent video games than young women because men are more aggressive in general and more sensitive to aggressive cues (Bartholow & Anderson, 2002). Both studies done by Carnagey et al, and Bartholow & Anderson depicted violence in video games reduces physiological arousal to real-life violence, and increase aggressive thoughts and feelings. However, there are games created to reverse these effects. Greitemeyer and Osswald (2009) looked at the opposite end of the spectrum when it came to violent video game exposure. They used prosocial video games, such as Lemmings. Their hypothesis for the first experiment was that playing a prosocial (relative to a neutral) video game decreases aggressive cognitions (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2009). Participants played either a prosocial game (Lemmings) or a neutral game (Tetris) for 10 minutes. After game play,
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 6 participants were asked two questions measuring liking of the game and participants indicated to what extent they perceived the content of the video game to be aggressive and finally completed three ambiguous story stems. The results were as predicted, that participants who had played the prosocial video game expected fewer aggressive responses from the characters in the stories than did the participants who played the neutral game. The second experiment was similar to the first, but with the addition of a word completion task, and was expecting that playing a prosocial game (relative to a neutral) video game would decrease the number of aggressive word completions (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2009). Participants played either Lemmings or Tetris and were given 50 word fragments to fill out afterwards. The results showed that participants who had played a prosocial video game had lower antisocial word completion scores than those who had played the neutral video game. To conclude, violence in video games is an influential factor in increasing aggressive thoughts, behaviors and responses. This has been found regarding real-life images of violence and between sexes. However, there are studies to show that same factor can be reduced with an opposing prosocial video game. The following study looks at what effect the exposure of violent video games has on individuals, as opposed to participants who play nonviolent or no video game at all. The hypothesis stated for this study is that participants who were in the violent video game condition will show less physiological arousal to real-life violence than to participants in the nonviolent and no video game condition.
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 7 Participants Methods Nineteen undergraduate students from Algoma University participated in this study. There were eleven male and eight female participants. Design The study was a 3 x 2 between subjects factorial design. The levels manipulated were the violent video game, nonviolent video game and the no video game conditions. Materials Mortal Kombat was used for the violent video game condition, Tetris was used for the nonviolent video game condition and a Wikipedia page titled Japanese Battleship Nagato was used for the no video game condition. An MMA video depicting extremely disturbing and bloody content was also used. The study was done in an isolated room and it lasted for approximately 20 minutes. Participants were given a video game questionnaire that detailed questions about their history playing video games, after giving consent. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: violent video game (Mortal Kombat), nonviolent video game (Tetris) and no video game (Japanese Battleship Nagato). Participants in the violent video game condition played the tutorial for Mortal Kombat for two minutes, and then played actual matches for three minutes. In the nonviolent video game condition, participants played Tetris for four minutes, and individuals in the no video game condition read as much of the article in a four minute span. After the first phase of the experiment, each participant watched a video depicting MMA fights
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 8 for approximately five minutes. The MMA video was ideal for the experiment because of its brutality and bloody fights, to expose the participants to real-life violence. After watching the MMA video, participants filled out both the Buss-Perry and the State Hostility Scale questionnaire and finally debriefed. Demographics questionnaire was used to collect information on the individual such as gender and history of their video game background. There were two dependant measures questionnaires that collected data on how the participant was feeling after running their respective condition and watching the MMA video. Results A univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine both the current mood score and empathy scores of the questionnaires done by the participants. The alpha level for all statistical analyses was set at p <.05. Current Mood Score There was not a significant main effect between the conditions and the current mood score. The violent video game condition (M = 82.14, SD = 15.39), nonviolent video game condition (M = 82.71, SD = 13.61) and the no game condition (M= 82.8, SD = 14.13) were all similar. The effect with the current mood score is (F (2,13) =.015, p>.05). Empathy Score
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 9 Between the violent video game (M = 46.42, SD = 6.82), nonviolent video game (M = 47, SD = 4.89), and the no game condition (M=42.2, SD = 6.14), all the results were also similar when it came to the empathy score. The effect with the empathy score is (F (2,13)= 1.33, p>.05). Figures and tables Figure 1. Mean scores from both questionnaires for the violent video game condition with male and female, nonviolent video game condition with male and female and no game condition with male and female.
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 10 As shown above, the current mood score is always much higher than the empathy score, but this is due to the current mood score having more questions, almost 20 more questions, so it is not exactly relevant to see the differences specifically between the questionnaires. Apart from that, females generated higher scores than males in both questionnaires for the most part, which would mean that females were more disturbed by the MMA video shown after their respective conditions, as opposed to the males. Discussion The experiment did not work out as well as it was planned to. The hypothesis was that there would be a significant effect to the violent condition, but no effect to the other two conditions. However, the results from both questionnaires showed that the participants level of feeling did not vary much from each other. There was no outlier for any of the conditions that would make a significant impact or be deemed for deeper inspection. However, female participants typically scored higher on both questionnaires than male participants, revealing that females were more sensitive to the material shown after their respective conditions. The experiment was not well designed, and there are ways to improve it for possible future purposes. In previous research, studies had a heart rate machine and galvanic skin response machine to accurately identify how a participant was feeling because this shows unconscious reaction to violence. The questionnaires used was fair, however, with the use of technology such as the ones previously stated, the results of the experiment would be clearly defined. The MMA video shown to participants seemed to have some participants complaining about the disturbing content, while others were quite indifferent to the images shown, and it is
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 11 believed that is due to one s tolerance to blood and gore. So if possible, a video with disturbing content in a different setting, such as war or genocide could have a different effect on participants, because while MMA fighters do this to make money and entertainment, there are the few rare cases of death involved, as opposed to war and genocide, where death is heavily involved. In relation to the study done by Carnagey et al., the procedures done were similar, but where as Carnagey et al. produced significant results, the study involving mood and empathy did not. The heart rate and galvanic skin rate machines used in the study by Carnagey et al. is a vital part of the experiment, because of how accurate it is of unconscious actions of the human body, such as heart rate suddenly increasing, as opposed to a questionnaire an individual is completing and potentially putting down false answers, for reasons such as depicting themselves as just. Compared to the potential sex differences study done by Bartholow & Anderson, the results were similar, where females were more disturbed by the content shown, in any of the three conditions, as opposed to men who did not mind as much. Other researchers have looked at different ways to identify aggression in video games. A study done by Andrew K. Przybylski et al. (2014) called Competence Impeding Electronic Games and Players Aggressive Feelings, Thoughts and Behaviors, had games that were horribly designed or extremely difficult, and that the participant s incompetence to finishing a level was the result of their aggressive tendencies. It is fascinating to see that the aggressiveness that violent video games have is present, but the way it is being transmitted is quite possibly not the way researchers have been looking at it, and this is definitely something to look forward in the future.
EXPOSURE TO EFFECTS OF VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES 12 References Carnagey, N. L., Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2007). The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real life violence.journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 489-496. Retrieved from http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2005-2009/07cab.pdf Bartholow, B. D., & Anderson, C. A. (2002). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behaviors: Potential sex differences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 283-290. Retrieved from http://facstaff.unca.edu/tlbrown/rm1/videogamesaggression.pdf Osswald, S., & Greitemeyer, T. (2009). Prosocial video games reduce aggressive cognitions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 896-900. Przybylski, A. K., Deci, E. L., Rigby, C. S., Ryan, R. M. (2014) Competence-impeding electronic games and players aggressive feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106, 441-457