Seeing the World Through Mortal Kombat-colored Glasses

This study investigated the effects of playing violent vs non-violent video games on the interpretation of ambiguous provocation situations. The participants played either a very violent video game or a relatively non-violent video game for several minutes. Children were then read five stories in which a same-sex peer caused a clearly negative event to happen but where the peer's intent was ambiguous. After each story, children were asked a series of questions about the peer's intent, subsequent actions and potential punishment. Responses were coded in terms of amount of negative and violent content. Results indicated that children playing the violent video game responded more negatively on three of the six ambiguous provocation story questions than children playing the non-violent video game. These data suggest that playing violent video games leads to the development of a hostile attribution bias.