Correlates and Consequences of Exposure to Video Game Violence: Hostile Personality, Empathy, and Aggressive Behavior

Research has shown that exposure to violent video games causes increases in aggression, but the mechanisms of this effect have remained elusive. Also, potential differences in short-term and long-term exposure are not well understood. An initial correlational study shows that video game violence exposure (VVE) is positively correlated with self-reports of aggressive behavior and that this relation is robust to controlling for multiple aspects of personality. A lab experiment showed that individuals low in VVE behave more aggressively after playing a violent video game than after a nonviolent game but that those high in VVE display relatively high levels of aggression regardless of game content. Mediational analyses show that trait hostility, empathy, and hostile perceptions partially account for the VVE effect on aggression. These findings suggest that repeated exposure to video game violence increases aggressive behavior in part via changes in cognitive and personality factors associated with desensitization.

[1]  Brad J. Bushman,et al.  Priming Effects of Media Violence on the Accessibility of Aggressive Constructs in Memory , 1998 .

[2]  B. Bushman,et al.  Moderating role of trait aggressiveness in the effects of violent media on aggression. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[3]  C. Anderson,et al.  Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior: Potential sex differences. , 2002 .

[4]  S. Taylor.  Aggressive behavior and physiological arousal as a function of provocation and the tendency to inhibit aggression. , 1967, Journal of personality.

[5]  J. Osofsky,et al.  The effects of exposure to violence on young children. , 1995, The American psychologist.

[6]  C. Anderson,et al.  Affect of the Game Player , 1986 .

[7]  E. Staub.  Cultural-societal roots of violence. The examples of genocidal violence and of contemporary youth violence in the United States. , 1996, The American psychologist.

[8]  A. Buss,et al.  The aggression questionnaire. , 1992, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[9]  C. Anderson,et al.  Violent Video Games and Hostile Expectations: A Test of the General Aggression Model , 2002 .

[10]  M. Prinstein,et al.  Childhood peer rejection and aggression as predictors of adolescent girls' externalizing and health risk behaviors: a 6-year longitudinal study. , 2004, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[11]  D. Mackinnon,et al.  A Simulation Study of Mediated Effect Measures. , 1995, Multivariate behavioral research.

[12]  Jeanne B. Funk,et al.  Playing violent video games, desensitization, and moral evaluation in children , 2003 .

[13]  C A Anderson,et al.  Media violence and the American public. Scientific facts versus media misinformation. , 2001, The American psychologist.

[14]  A. Zeichner,et al.  Construct validity of a competitive reaction‐time aggression paradigm , 1995 .

[15]  C. Anderson,et al.  Violent crime rate studies in philosophical context: A destructive testing approach to heat and southern culture of violence effects. , 1996 .

[16]  B. Bushman,et al.  Trait aggressiveness and hockey penalties: predicting hot tempers on the ice. , 1998, The Journal of applied psychology.

[17]  Steven J. Kirsh.  Seeing the World Through Mortal Kombat-colored Glasses , 1998 .

[18]  T. Moffitt,et al.  Developmental trajectories of childhood disruptive behaviors and adolescent delinquency: a six-site, cross-national study. , 2003, Developmental psychology.

[19]  C. Robert Cloninger.  A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants. A proposal. , 1987, Archives of general psychiatry.

[20]  G. Caprara,et al.  Indicators of impulsive aggression: Present status of research on irritability and Emotional Susceptibility Scales. , 1985 .

[21]  J. Barlow.  The Ultimate History of Video Games , 2003 .

[22]  D. Linz,et al.  Desensitization and resensitization to violence against women: effects of exposure to sexually violent films on judgments of domestic violence victims. , 1995, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[23]  C. Anderson,et al.  Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature , 2001, Psychological science.

[24]  Cloninger Cr.  A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants: A proposal. , 1987 .

[25]  Nancy L. Williams.  Ghosts from the Nursery: Tracing the Roots of Violence , 1999 .

[26]  C. Anderson.  An update on the effects of playing violent video games. , 2004, Journal of adolescence.

[27]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  The relation of empathy to aggressive and externalizing/antisocial behavior. , 1988, Psychological bulletin.

[28]  Mark D. Griffiths,et al.  Desensitization to television violence: A new model , 1989 .

[29]  P. Giancola.  EVidence for dorsolateral and orbital prefrontal cortical involvement in the expression of aggressive behavior , 1995 .

[30]  D. Gentile,et al.  The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance. , 2004, Journal of adolescence.

[31]  Mindy E. Flanagan,et al.  Temperature and aggression , 2000 .

[32]  Theory in the Study of Media Violence: The General Aggression Model. , 2003 .

[33]  S. Suchday,et al.  Discovering how urban poverty and violence affect health: development and validation of a Neighborhood Stress Index. , 2002, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[34]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[35]  Margaret H. Thomas.  Physiological arousal, exposure to a relatively lengthy aggressive film, and aggressive behavior ☆ , 1982 .

[36]  S. Penrod,et al.  Effects of long-term exposure to violent and sexually degrading depictions of women. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[37]  K. Sher,et al.  Personality and substance use disorders: a prospective study. , 2000, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[38]  Tracie Pasold,et al.  Violence exposure in real-life, video games, television, movies, and the internet: is there desensitization? , 2004, Journal of adolescence.

[39]  D. I. Boomsma,et al.  Individual Differences in Aggression: Genetic Analyses by Age, Gender, and Informant in 3-, 7-, and 10-Year-Old Dutch Twins , 2003, Behavior genetics.

[40]  Petra Netter,et al.  Modification of experimentally induced aggression by temperament dimensions , 1998 .

[41]  V. B. Cline,et al.  Desensitization of children to television violence. , 1973, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[42]  L. Rowell Huesmann,et al.  The role of social information processing and cognitive schema in the acquisition and maintenance of habitual aggressive behavior , 1998 .

[43]  L. Eron,et al.  Stressful events and individual beliefs as correlates of economic disadvantage and aggression among urban children. , 1995, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[44]  Craig A. Anderson,et al.  From Antecedent Conditions to Violent Actions: A General Affective Aggression Model , 2000 .

[45]  A. Raine,et al.  Attention, autonomic arousal, and personality in behaviorally disordered children , 1987, Journal of abnormal child psychology.

[46]  Laramie D. Taylor,et al.  The Case against the Case against Media Violence. , 2003 .

[47]  Sandra L. Calvert,et al.  Impact of Virtual Reality on Young Adults' Physiological Arousal and Aggressive Thoughts: Interaction versus Observation. , 1994 .

[48]  Craig A. Anderson,et al.  Interactive effects of life experience and situational cues on aggression: The weapons priming effect in hunters and nonhunters , 2005 .

[49]  M. Sobel.  Asymptotic Confidence Intervals for Indirect Effects in Structural Equation Models , 1982 .

[50]  B. Bushman,et al.  Do people aggress to improve their mood? Catharsis beliefs, affect regulation opportunity, and aggressive responding. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[51]  Douglas A. Gentile,et al.  A normative study of family media habits , 2002 .

[52]  J. Freedman,et al.  Media Violence and its Effect on Aggression: Assessing the Scientific Evidence , 2002 .

[53]  J. Colwell,et al.  Negative correlates of computer game play in adolescents. , 2000, British journal of psychology.

[54]  C. Anderson,et al.  External Validity of “Trivial” Experiments: The Case of Laboratory Aggression , 1997 .

[55]  P. Giancola,et al.  The moderating effects of dispositional empathy on alcohol-related aggression in men and women. , 2003, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[56]  Norman Miller,et al.  Evidence for a General Construct of Aggression , 1989 .

[57]  Sheri L. Robinson,et al.  Relational aggression in college students: Examining the roles of social anxiety and empathy , 2003 .

[58]  H. Eysenck.  Biological dimensions of personality. , 1990 .

[59]  M. B. Harris.  Aggressive Experiences and Aggressiveness: Relationship to Ethnicity, Gender, and Age1 , 1996 .

[60]  R. Lazarus,et al.  A laboratory study of psychological stress produced by a motion picture film. , 1962 .

[61]  Karen E. Dill,et al.  Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life. , 2000, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[62]  D. Watson,et al.  Structures of personality and their relevance to psychopathology. , 1994, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[63]  E. Donnerstein,et al.  Harmful effects of exposure to media violence: Learning of aggression, emotional desensitization, and fear. , 1998 .

[64]  R. Hayward.  Empathy , 1971, The Lancet.

[65]  F. Poustka,et al.  Temperament and Disruptive Behavior Disorders , 2001, Psychopathology.

[66]  M. Ballard,et al.  Mortal Kombat (tm): The Effects of Violent Videogame Play on Males' Hostility and Cardiovascular Responding , 1996 .

[67]  Mindy E. Flanagan,et al.  Violent video games: Specific effects of violent content on aggressive thoughts and behavior , 2004 .

[68]  J. Cooper,et al.  Video Games and Aggression in Children , 1986 .

[69]  D. Zillmann,et al.  Effects of Prolonged Exposure to Gratuitous Media Violence on Provoked and Unprovoked Hostile Behavior1 , 1999 .

[70]  R. Drabman,et al.  Does watching violence on television cause apathy? , 1976, Pediatrics.

[71]  Mark H. Davis.  Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. , 1983 .

[72]  S. Penrod,et al.  Attributing Responsibility to Female Victims After Exposure to Sexually Violent Films1 , 1997 .

[73]  C. Anderson,et al.  Human Aggression , 1989, Annual review of psychology.

[74]  Larry E. Toothaker,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions , 1991 .

[75]  E. Donnerstein,et al.  Physiological Desensitization and Judgments About Female Victims of Violence , 1989 .

[76]  G. Patterson.  Coercion as a basis for early age of onset for arrest , 1995 .