Psychology Literature Review Paper - DUE in 20 hours

Running Head: DOES VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES INCREASE AGGRESSION 1

Does Violence in Video Games Increase Aggression in the Short- and Long-Term

Student Name Here

University of North Carolina Wilmington

DOES VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES INCREASE AGGRESSION 2

Does Violence in Video Games Increase Aggression in the Short- and Long-Term

Video games have been an area of interest in research for many years now. They are as

much a part of society as reading and watching television are, and their use has only kept

growing rapidly in recent years. Sixty-eight percent of US households play video games, with

forty percent of the individuals being women. Even all age groups are involved in playing video

games, with one in four gamers being over the age of fifty (“Essential facts about,” 2009).

Because of the amount of people that play video games, researchers have been interested in

observing the effects that they can have on people. One particular effect they might have,

inciting aggression, has been a subject of mass media attention for as long as the research has

been done. Violent video games in particular have been focused on, with the media singling out

games such as Grand Theft Auto© (manufacturer) and Call of Duty© (manufacturer) (Leung,

2009). Aggression is of particular interest to the general population because it is associated with

crime, especially assault and murder. This is because playing violent games is theorized to

increase the likelihood a person will behave aggressively, perhaps even leading one towards

criminal action, impacting society in a harmful manner.

The operational definition of aggression is vague at best; behavioral factors, chemical

factors, and even self-reported feelings are taken into account. Few of these measures give an

accurate representation of how aggression affects people (Deselms & Altman, 2003). Behaviors

are the best measure of how people will react to an increased level of aggression, and are what

should be measured, whereas chemicals in the brain can merely influence how people act—they

are not an entirely accurate measure of increased aggression. Surveys are also not entirely

accurate because aggression inhibits rationalization and affects answers; thusly, the responses are

not likely to be accurate enough for research purposes. One paper describes aggression as

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Commented [W2]: Amount is incorrect when talking about people – if you can count it, then use the word “number”. If you cannot count it discretely, then use amount (like with lbs)

DOES VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES INCREASE AGGRESSION 3

“behavior that is intended to harm another person who is motivated to avoid that harm”. They

say it is an action, not a thought or intention. This is a definition I agree with and use (Anderson

et al, 2012, p. 1068).

Another problem with these studies is that they tend to not differentiate between types of

video games, nor do they account for any spurious relationships that may cause an increase in

aggression. Violence exists in most video games in some form, but there could be another subset

of factors that cause an increase in aggressive behavior that is generally linked to violent games,

such as competitiveness. For instance, in the Call of Duty games, there is violence involved, but

it is almost exclusively in competition with other people, and that is not accounted for in most

cases. This also means games such as racing games, which have little to no violence but are very

competitive, could cause increases in aggression.

Another aspect of this research generally not reviewed is the long-term effects violent

video games have on aggressive behavior. Short-term effects, such as increases in certain

chemicals in the brain, are measured and used to indicate increases in aggression, but this

increase is fairly inconsequential if it does not have a long-term affect on aggression.

Of particular interest to me was whether or not it is violence in video games that can

cause an increase in aggression (as opposed to something like competition) and whether or not

increases in aggression from video games are short- or long- term. This is relevant to society

because of how commonly played violent video games are, and if they do in fact increase

aggression in the long-term, then it could have a strong negative impact on society. It could also

carry over to other forms of entertainment that involve violence, such as television and movies,

and it could lead to them being examined as well.

Commented [W3]: Avoid talking about yourself in a scientific paper.

Commented [W4]: Good point

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In a study by Engelhardt, Bartholow, Kerr, and Bushman (2011), desensitization theory

was tested in reference to video games. Previous studies have been done regarding this

supporting this concept, and this study explains “desensitization theory proposes that repeated

exposure to violence results in habituation of the initially negative cognitive, emotional, and

psychological responses people experience when they see blood and gore (see Funk, Bechtoklt-

Baldacci, Pasoki, & Baurngartner, 2004; Rule & Ferguson, 1986).” Desensitization is supposed

to take repeated exposures to violence over a long time to occur, but studies have shown some

desensitization after short exposures to violence. Desensitization had not been linked to increases

in violence, however, until this study (Engelhardt, Bartholow, Kerr, & Bushman, 2011).

In this study, participants either played a violent or a nonviolent video game in a lab, and

desensitization was measured “using the amplitude of the P300 (P3) component of the event-

related brain potential elicited by photos depicting real violence (Engelhardt, Bartholow, Kerr, &

Bushman, 2011, p. 1034).” Aggression was then measured by measuring the volume of the

unpleasant noise blasts the participants gave an opponent. P3 is an accurate measure of

desensitization to violence because recent studies have linked larger P3 amplitudes to a higher

aversive motivation in regards to violent stimuli.

Based on this information, the researchers hypothesized that participants who played

violent video games would show smaller P3 amplitudes to violent images compared to

participants who played a nonviolent game. They also predicted that this lower P3 amplitude

would predict aggressive behavior, thus mediating the relationship between violent video game

exposure and aggressive behavior.

Participants were chosen from a pool of people who completed a survey about video

game usage, measuring their five favorite games, the hours per week they play those games, and

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how violent the content of the games is. Thirty-five participants were selected from those in the

top twenty-fifth percentile of exposure to violence and thirty-five from the bottom twenty-fifth

percentile.

To ensure that participants did not change their behavior because they found out it was a

study on aggression, they were told that it was a study on visual perception and reaction time.

Participants were then randomly assigned to either play violent or nonviolent video games;

specifically, the violent games were Call of Duty: Finest Hour, Hitman: Contracts, Killzone, and

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and the nonviolent games were Jak and Daxter: The Precursor

Legacy, MVP Baseball 2004, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, and Sonic Plus Mega Collection.

Afterwards, they were told to look at violent and nonviolent pictures from the International

Affective Picture System and think about their reactions. Then they completed a competitive

reaction time task, and when they won versus the computer controlled opponent, the “opponent”

would be blasted with white noise, the level of which was set before the reaction time task, and

the participants were able to control the duration of the blast as well. Lastly, as another

precautionary measure, the “participants were probed for suspicion and dismissed (Engelhardt,

Bartholow, Kerr, & Bushman, 2011, p. 1034).”

The results of this study showed that people who had previous violent video game

exposure had a smaller P3 amplitude (which suggests desensitization to violence) than those who

did not, and participants with low previous exposure to violent video games those who played

violent games in the lab had a smaller P3 amplitude than those who played a nonviolent game.

There was no significant difference in P3 amplitude between participants who played violent and

nonviolent video games in the lab among the group with high previous exposure to video game

violence. Another important note of this study is that the participants who played a violent game

DOES VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES INCREASE AGGRESSION 6

were more aggressive than those who did not, in terms of the noise blasts, and those with high

previous exposure to violent video games were more aggressive than those with low previous

exposure (Engelhardt, Bartholow, Kerr, & Bushman, 2011, 1035).

This study is one of the first to show a direct link between desensitization to violence

because of violent video games and aggression, and it even hinted at long term effects because of

this exposure. However, it may have some confounds.

One potential problem I see with this study is that it does not account for other forms of

violence these individuals may have been exposed to, or when they were exposed to it. It seems

entirely possible that since the participants had high previous exposure to violence that some of

the played violent games immediately prior to this study. This would skew the results some, and

make temporary effects seem to be long term. Also, the survey the participants filled out in the

beginning of the survey had a subjective measure of how violent the video games were. It is

difficult to accurately say, on a scale, how violent a specific game is, and the results could have

been misleading.

While the study did show a link between violent video game playing and aggression, it

did not account for how the people playing violent video games regularly could have become

more aggressive over time. Aggressive personalities may tend to be attracted to violence, and

thus would pick more violent games to play. In addition to this, people who play violent video

games often would also be more likely to view other violent forms of media, and this could

account for some of the desensitization in that group. It is possible that the group of people who

did not have high previous exposure to violent video games also did not have high previous

exposure to other forms of violent media, making their P3 amplitudes higher when viewing

violence, which is somewhat new to them, and the participants who did have high previous

Commented [W6]: Yes!

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exposure to violent video games were exposed to many other forms of violent media over time,

and are desensitized because of many factors and not just video games.

A final, somewhat glaring issue I see with this study is that while they measure the

increase in aggression by using a noise blast, this does not necessarily generalize to the

population. It could show that exposure to frequent violence makes you a bit more likely to

respond to people with aggression, but it does not indicate that this has any real-world impact. It

does not show that people who are more aggressive, because of violent video games or not, are

nay more likely to be dangerous than other people.

A second study was done on the longitudinal effects of violent video games on

aggression by Anderson, Sakamoto, Gentile, Ihori, Shibuya, Yukawa, Naito, and Kobayashi

(2012), and this was done in Japan and in the United States. I believe that it is always important

to examine these effects in different cultures and societies. This study intended to measure the

effects of playing violent video games on aggression in students over time. The Japanese

students were in two sample pools, one with students aged twelve to fifteen years and another

with students aged thirteen to eighteen years. The sample from the United States consisted of

students from nine to twelve years old. According to the researchers, studies have shown that

there is no significant difference in the effects of violence on these age groups (Anderson et al,

2012, p. 1068).

The habitual video game violence exposure (HVGV) and recent physical aggressiveness

were measured. The US students listed their three favorite video games and rated the amount of

violent content and time spent playing the games, and HVGV was measured by multiplying the

violent content rating by the frequency of play and averaging the three scores.. The younger

Japanese student group indicated how frequently they played each of eight genres of video

DOES VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES INCREASE AGGRESSION 8

games, which consist of nonviolent genres (puzzle, simulation, and sports) and violent genres

(fighting action, action, action role playing game, and shooting) and based on previous research

on video games in Japan, HVGV was computed by averaging the frequency of play of the five

violent game genres (Anderson et al, 2012, p. 1069).

The older Japanese student group had a different method of measure. Participants told

researchers their four favorite genres of video games and how often they played them. If their

favorite genre was a violent genre, the participant received two points, and one point was given

for each additional violent genre (Anderson et al, 2012, p. 1069) .

The measure of physical aggression for the Japanese group was a self-report measure and

for the US group is was a combination of teacher, peer, and self-reports of aggression. The

younger Japanese group used the Buss and Perry physical aggression scale, and the older

Japanese group used a one-item self report of physical aggression in the past month. Finally, the

data from the three groups was linked to form a baseline for testing of additional hypotheses, and

created three different models for the data (Anderson et al, 2012, p. 1069).

The researchers believe that this data shows that habitually playing violent video games

leads to increases in physical aggression months later in children and adolescents compared to

those who do not play violent video games. They also believe that it shows this effect is

consistent in highly individualistic cultures with high rates of violence such as the US and in

collectivistic cultures with low rates of violence such as Japan. They use this information to

contradict the hypothesis that increases in aggression due to playing violent video games only

occurs in aggressive children. A third finding of theirs was that there was a larger longitudinal

effect of video game violence in younger samples (Anderson et al, 2012, p. 1070).

DOES VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES INCREASE AGGRESSION 9

After reflecting upon the data and methods presented in the study, it is apparent that there

are many problems with how it was conducted. The main concern with this study is that it is

purely correlational, in every aspect. Despite this, they use the data to present causal

explanations for what could be happening, stating that it confirms this causal relationship

(Anderson et al, 2012, p. 1070). To be precise, they state that “habitually playing violent video

games leads to increases in physical aggression. (Anderson et al, 2012, p. 1070)”. The researches

did not show this in the study; they merely showed that self-reports of physical aggression

correlate with the amount of time spent playing violent video games. Secondly, the different

measures in all three subject groups lead to different data, and a separate measure had to be used

to correlate all of it. This does not lead to a consistent measure of data, and cannot be used to

accurately show the parallels and differences between the two cultures discussed.

A third study on this subject was done by Teng, Chong, Siew, and Skoric (2011) titled

“Grand Theft Auto IV Comes to Singapore: Effects of Repeated Exposure to Violent Video

Games on Aggression.” This study sought to “examine the causal link between violent video

game play and aggression by conducting a longitudinal experiment in a controlled, laboratory-

based setting” since there have only been inconclusive and flawed studies about the subject of

video games and aggression (Teng, Chong, Siew, & Skoric, 2011, p. 598). The three hypotheses

for this study were that ‘playing violent video games will result in higher trait aggression’,

“playing violent video games will result in stronger attitudes towards violence”, and “playing a

violent video game will result in lower levels of empathy (Teng, Chong, Siew, & Skoric, 2011,

p. 598)”.

There were two groups in this study; one who would play a violent video game for three

weeks, specifically Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV), and one group who would not play a game.

Commented [W7]: Good point

Commented [W8]: You don’t refer to titles here according to apa format

DOES VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES INCREASE AGGRESSION 10

Participants were chosen based on how much violent media exposure they had, and only people

with less than two hours each week were chosen for the study. In total, 135 students participated

in the study, sixty-six being in the experimental group (the final sample was 63 participants) and

sixty-nine in the control group. The mean age of participants was 21.1 years in the experimental

group and 20.9 in the control group. All participants were undergrad students from a university

in Singapore (Teng, Chong, Siew, & Skoric, 2011, p. 598-599).

The experimental sessions were held in a computer laboratory on campus, and the

experimental group was required to play the game for two hours twice a week. Aggression was

measured using two different methods. The first was the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire,

which consisted of 29 statements that measured aggression through four categories (physical

aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility). The second was the Caprara Irritability

Scale, which is based on the relationship between irritability and impulsive and reactive

aggression. Attitudes towards violence were measured with the Velicer Attitudes Towards

Violence Scale, consisting of thirty-nine items that measure attitudes towards violence, and uses

a four-factor model of violence (war violence, corporal punishment of children, penal code

violence, and intimate violence). The latter two factors were used in this study, since they pertain

to the game played. Empathy was also measured using Mehrabian and Epsteins’s Emotional

Empathy Scale, which consists of thirty-three items assessing individual empathy (Teng, Chong,

Siew, & Skoric, 2011, p. 599).

This study found that males were more likely to be aggressive than females, but there was

no gender difference in irritability. Irritability, however, was greater in the experimental group.

The experimental group also had stronger pro-violence attitudes than the control group. Empathy

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did not differ between the two groups, but males had a lower level than females (Teng, Chong,

Siew, & Skoric, 2011, p. 599).

The main point of this finding was that no differences in aggression were found among

the two groups. Also, since there was no difference in empathy, desensitization to violence did

not occur in the experimental group. They did, however, find that playing violent video games

can increase aggressive attitudes. The explanation the researchers give for this is that the area the

research was conducted in has a low crime rate and harsh penalties for crime, and people who

were exposed to the high levels of fictional crime became more approving of penal code violence

in support of their social conditions (Teng, Chong, Siew, & Skoric, 2011, p. 599-600).

The researchers in this study pointed out the flaws in their study quite well. This study

was limited by the short three week time period. It is possible, and the researchers say, that more

time is needed to be able to observe the effects of this, especially outside of a younger sample

(Teng, Chong, Siew, & Skoric, 2011, p. 600). Also, this study could not measure small changes,

as the alpha was set at 0.05. The time spent playing games could have been too small or

infrequent to be generalizable. The last problem the researchers point out is that outside media

access could not be controlled and could have had an effect on the participants (Teng, Chong,

Siew, & Skoric, 2011, p. 600).

This study ties in with the first two very well; it even directly refutes their points. This

last study found no desensitization was caused by playing violent video games, and no

aggressive behavior was caused by it. The first two studies assert the opposite. This shows the

many differing studies on this subject matter, and demonstrates the flaws in the methodology of

research in this area.

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Some things that are not addressed need to be taken into account. To be able to accurately

perform research on violent video games and aggression, you must know the differences in types

of video games and how they are played. Few studies offer this perspective. Also, a standard

measure needs to be used among all subjects to accurately compare them, perhaps even having

multiple groups run, with a separate measure for each study, in order to compare the results of

different measures.

In order for this debate to be finalized, one way or another, a study needs to be done in an

extremely controlled environment, all forms of media need to be taken into account, personalities

and previous exposure need to be measured, and a game needs to be carefully chosen for an

example of violence and nonviolence. The current studies do not control enough variables and

understand enough about video games to make an accurate study.

A good example of what needs to be measured in video games is competitiveness and

difficulty, which can lead to frustration) as opposed to violence. Certain video games even

require the player to be aggressive, though they are not violent. Mario Kart is a good example of

a game that is competitive (you race against opponents), aggressive (you need to forcefully pass

other players to take the lead), and they are difficult (you must be better than up to seven

opponents to be successful). This game could lead to increases in aggressive behavior (and in

personal observations, it has done so frequently) even though it is not violent.

If these differences are determined, and these specific flaws are addressed, then this

research can finally reach an accurate conclusion on the issue of video game violence and

aggression.

DOES VIOLENCE IN VIDEO GAMES INCREASE AGGRESSION 13

References

Anderson, C. A., Sakamoto, A., Gentile, D. A., Ihori, N., Shibuya, A., Yukawa, S., & ...

Kobayashi, K. (2008). Longitudinal effects of violent video games on aggression in

Japan and the United States. Pediatrics, 122(5), e1067-e1072. doi:10.1542/peds.2008-

1425

Deselms, J. L., & Altman, J. D. (2003). Immediate and prolonged effects of video game

violence. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33(8), 1553-1563.

Engelhardt, C. R., Bartholow, B. D., Kerr, G. T., Bushman, B. J. (2011). This is your brain on

violent video games: Neural desensitization to violence predicts increased aggression

following violent video game exposure. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 47, 1033-

1036.

Essential facts about the computer and video game industry. (2009). Entertainment Software

Association, Retrieved from http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2009.pdf

Leung, R. (2009, February 11). Can a video game lead to murder?. CBS News. Retrieved from

http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18560_162-678261.html

Teng, S. K. Z., Chong, G. Y. M., Siew, A. S. C., & Skoric, M. M. (2011). Grand theft auto IV

comes to singapore: Effects of repeated exposure to violent video games on aggression.

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14(10), 597- 602.

Formatted: Centered

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