Extending the theory of Bounded Generalized Reciprocity: An explanation of the social benefits of cooperative video game play

Players had a helpful or unhelpful video game teammate or minimal in-group member.Players engaged in a simultaneous or sequential PDG with teammate and opposing team.Helpful teammates confirmed reciprocity expectations and increased pro-socialness.Unhelpful teammates had the opposite effect on pro-socialness between teammates.Playing with a helpful teammate increased pro-socialness toward out-group members. The theory of Bounded Generalized Reciprocity was examined to help explain why cooperative video game play can increase players' subsequent pro-social behaviors. Participants played a basketball video game with a helpful or unhelpful teammate against an ostensible opposing team. Participants in the control condition did not play a video game with their teammate. Participants then engaged in a one-shot simultaneous or sequential prisoner's dilemma game with their teammate and an opposing team member. In line with Bounded Generalized Reciprocity, donations to teammates were influenced by expectations of others to reciprocate pro-social behaviors. Specifically, playing with a helpful teammate confirmed expectations of in-group members to reciprocate pro-social behaviors and led to increases in pro-social behaviors between teammates. Playing with an unhelpful teammate disconfirmed expectations of in-group members to reciprocate pro-social behaviors and led to decreases in pro-social behaviors between teammates. Interestingly, playing with a helpful teammate increased participants' donation to out-group members even though participants did not expect them to reciprocate. The current study emphasizes the importance of pro-social reciprocity expectations in predicting people's pro-social behaviors and the impact cooperative video game play can have on such expectations.

[1]  M. Eastin.  The Influence of Competitive and Cooperative Group Game Play on State Hostility , 2007 .

[2]  Aphra Kerr,et al.  The Business and Culture of Digital Games: Gamework and Gameplay , 2006 .

[3]  Craig A. Anderson,et al.  Competitive Aggression without Interaction: Effects of Competitive Versus Cooperative Instructions on Aggressive Behavior in Video Games , 1995 .

[4]  S. Fiske,et al.  The Handbook of Social Psychology , 1935 .

[5]  N. Ellemers,et al.  Self‐categorisation, commitment to the group and group self‐esteem as related but distinct aspects of social identity , 1999 .

[6]  Frank E. Dardis,et al.  Electronic Friend or Virtual Foe: Exploring the Role of Competitive and Cooperative Multiplayer Video Game Modes in Fostering Enjoyment , 2012 .

[7]  Mark D. Griffiths,et al.  Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers , 2007, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[8]  C. Batson.  The Altruism Question: Toward A Social-psychological Answer , 1991 .

[9]  Vincent Yzerbyt,et al.  The black sheep effect: Judgmental extremity towards ingroup members in inter‐and intra‐group situations , 1988 .

[10]  G. Carlo,et al.  Sociocognitive and Behavioral Correlates of a Measure of Prosocial Tendencies for Adolescents , 2003 .

[11]  Toshio Yamagishi,et al.  Exchanges of group-based favours: Ingroup bias in the prisoner's dilemma game with minimal groups in Japan and New Zealand , 2008 .

[12]  David R. Karp,et al.  Raising the minimum in the minimal group paradigm. , 1993 .

[13]  Katherine E. Buckley,et al.  A Theoretical Model of the Effects and Consequences of Playing Video Games. , 2006 .

[14]  T. Yamagishi,et al.  The Group as the Container of Generalized Reciprocity , 2000 .

[15]  Tobias Greitemeyer,et al.  Violent Video Games and Reciprocity , 2016, Commun. Res..

[16]  Vincent Yzerbyt,et al.  The “Black Sheep Effect”: Extremity of judgments towards ingroup members as a function of group identification , 1988 .

[17]  David P. MacKinnon,et al.  Statistical Mediation Analysis , 2012 .

[18]  G. Monaco,et al.  Using the Black Sheep Effect to reveal normative stakes: The example of alcohol drinking contexts , 2011 .

[19]  D. Gentile.  The multiple dimensions of video game effects. , 2011 .

[20]  C. Anderson,et al.  Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in eastern and western countries: a meta-analytic review. , 2010, Psychological bulletin.

[21]  Tobias Greitemeyer,et al.  There's no “I” in team: Effects of cooperative video games on cooperative behavior† , 2013 .

[22]  M. Hogg.  Social Identity Theory , 2016 .

[23]  Elinor Ostrom,et al.  RECIPROCITY, TRUST, AND THE SENSE OF CONTROL , 1999 .

[24]  Brian G. Southwell,et al.  The Good, the Bad, or the Ugly? , 2004 .

[25]  Jorge Peña,et al.  An Analysis of Socioemotional and Task Communication in Online Multiplayer Video Games , 2006, Commun. Res..

[26]  H. Tajfel,et al.  Social categorization and intergroup behaviour , 1971 .

[27]  Motoki Watabe,et al.  Cooperation in the One-shot Prisoner's Dilemma Based on Expectations of Reciprocity , 1996 .

[28]  B. Bushman,et al.  Are People More Aggressive When They Are Worse Off or Better Off Than Others? , 2012 .

[29]  David R. Ewoldsen,et al.  Effect of Playing Violent Video Games Cooperatively or Competitively on Subsequent Cooperative Behavior , 2012, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[30]  T. Yamagishi,et al.  Trust and commitment in the United States and Japan , 1994 .

[31]  Tobias Greitemeyer,et al.  How to ameliorate negative effects of violent video games on cooperation: Play it cooperatively in a team , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[32]  Michael G. Schmierbach,et al.  “Killing Spree”: Exploring the Connection Between Competitive Game Play and Aggressive Cognition , 2010, Commun. Res..

[33]  David R. Ewoldsen,et al.  Helping Behaviors During Video Game Play , 2013, J. Media Psychol. Theor. Methods Appl..

[34]  Tobias Greitemeyer.  Playing Video Games Cooperatively Increases Empathic Concern , 2013 .

[35]  H. Tajfel,et al.  Social categorization and similarity in intergroup behaviour , 1973 .

[36]  Bruce D. Smith,et al.  Refining the Architecture of Aggression: A Measurement Model for the Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire , 2001 .

[37]  M. Hewstone,et al.  Fifty-odd years of inter-group contact: from hypothesis to integrated theory. , 2011, The British journal of social psychology.

[38]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  Statistical mediation analysis with a multicategorical independent variable. , 2014, The British journal of mathematical and statistical psychology.

[39]  Nick Yee,et al.  Motivations for Play in Online Games , 2006, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[40]  Toshio Yamagishi,et al.  The provision of a sanctioning system in the United States and Japan , 1988 .

[41]  Christoph Klimmt,et al.  Of Virtual Victims and Victimized Virtues: Differential Effects of Experienced Aggression in Video Games on Social Cooperation , 2011, Personality & social psychology bulletin.

[42]  C. Daniel Batson,et al.  Altruism and Prosocial Behavior , 2003 .

[43]  C. Hayashi,et al.  A study of Japanese national character , 1960 .

[44]  Jacob M. Rabbie,et al.  Social identity theory: A conceptual and empirical critique from the perspective of a behavioural interaction model , 1989 .

[45]  David R. Ewoldsen,et al.  Ingroup Versus Outgroup Conflict in the Context of Violent Video Game Play , 2014, Commun. Res..

[46]  J. K. Murnighan,et al.  The Development of an Intragroup Norm and the Effects of Interpersonal and Structural Challenges , 1991 .

[47]  Aphra Kerr.  The business and culture of digital games Gamework / Gameplay , 1974 .

[48]  Jong-Eun Roselyn Lee,et al.  When Playing Together Feels Different: Effects of Task Types and Social Contexts on Physiological Arousal in Multiplayer Online Gaming Contexts , 2009, Cyberpsychology Behav. Soc. Netw..

[49]  K. Durkin,et al.  Not so doomed: computer game play and positive adolescent development , 2002 .

[50]  M. Ashton,et al.  Psychometric Properties of the HEXACO Personality Inventory , 2004, Multivariate behavioral research.

[51]  J. Marques,et al.  Ingroup bias and the black sheep' effect: assessing the impact of social identification and perceived variability on group judgements , 1992 .

[52]  D. Abrams,et al.  Being better by being right: subjective group dynamics and derogation of in-group deviants when generic norms are undermined. , 2001, Journal of personality and social psychology.