Bushman, B. J., & Gibson, B. (2010, August 11). Violent Video Games Cause an Increase in Aggression Long After the Game Has Been Turned Off. Retrieved November 18, 2018, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1948550610379506
Experimental studies show that violent video games cause people to behave more aggressively, but how long does the effect last? In most experiments, aggression is measured immediately after gameplay. The present experiment is the first to test the long-term causal effects of violent video games on aggression. By the flip of a coin, participants played a violent or nonviolent game for 20 min. Within each group, half ruminated about the game. The next day, participants competed with an ostensible opponent on a competitive task in which the winner could punish the loser with painful noise blasts through headphones. Results showed that violent video games increased aggression 24 hours later, but only among men who ruminated about the game. Rumination keeps aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavioral tendencies active. If players ruminate about the violence in a game, the aggression-stimulating effects of the game persist long after it has been turned off.
Bushman and Gibson are trying to solve whether or not aggressive behavior from playing violent video games is a long-term effect rather than a short-term one. The authors state, “Although experiments show that the relationship is causal, critics correctly point out that in experimental studies aggression is measured immediately after the video game is turned off.” Which means that the effects may be causal, but it’s not determined if the aggressive behavior could last longer than 24 hours after the game is initially played. This is an important topic to be conducting more research on because of most pre-teens, teenagers, and young adults playing a variety of different violent video games.
The authors’ hypothesis is that males would be more affected by ruminating about violent video games than females would (Bushman and Gibson, 2010). Their hypothesis is based off of previous research that had been done about aggressive behavior immediately after the participants had played a violent video game. Bushman and Gibson expect males to be more effected in the long-term because of some of the previous research that had been done. The previous research had stated that males often like violent content in video games and are more physiologically aroused by the violence than females are (e.g., Tafalla, 2007).
Bushman and Gibson conducted an experiment to test their hypothesis. Their experiment consisted of 126 college student participants that were tested individually by playing either a violent or non-violent video game on a PS3 for 20 minutes. The participants were assigned to play one of the six games: Mortal Kombat: vs. DC Universe, Resistance: Fall of Man, Resident Evil 5, Guitar Hero, Gran Turismo 5, and Shaun White Snowboarding. After the 20 minutes of playing their assigned video game, they were asked to fill out a self-rated questionnaire that rated how absorbing, action-packed, arousing, boring, enjoyable, entertaining, exciting, frustrating, fun, involving, stimulating, addicting, and violent they thought the game was (1 = strongly disagree, 10 = strongly agree) and to list their three favorite video games. The participants then were responsible to return the next day to list what they have thought about in the past 24 hours in 3 minutes and to participate in a competitive reaction time task which resulted in the winner blasting their partner with painful noise that ranged from 60-100 decibels into their headphones. The winner was also given a 0-decibel option for their partner. (Bushman and Gibson, 2010). The independent variables in this experiment are the type of video game played by the participant and the time playing the video game. The dependent variables are how and what the participant feels and thinks about within the 24 hours following the initial experiment and how they will react to either winning or losing the follow up experiment with the loud noise in their partner’s headphones.
Their results supported their hypothesis with a 2 (Game Type) x 2 (Rumination) x 2 (Gender) ANOVA which had found that violent video games had a higher violence rating than nonviolent game did (Bushman and Gibson, 2010). To evaluate the contemplation manipulation, two independent coders computed the percentage of words participants listed about the video game that they had played. As the authors expected, a 2 (Game Type) x 2 (Rumination) x 2 (Gender) ANOVA found that participants in the contemplation condition thought more about the video game than did those in the control condition. Thus, the rumination manipulation was effective (Bushman and Gibson, 2010).
The conclusion of this study was that men who played one of the violent video games for 20 minutes and had thought about the game after the initial experiment were more aggressive 24 hours later. This supported the author’s original hypothesis because of the male participants that had played a violent video game had shown aggression towards their partner in the follow up experiment with the loud noise in their partner’s headphones. Some implications for future research could be on how aggressive one may be after playing a violent video game for a longer period of time and how long their aggression lasts after they had played.
A pro of how the authors chose to test their hypothesis is that the experiment truly was randomized which would then not give any bias to each participant because of maybe not having previous experience playing the either violent or non-violent game that they had been assigned. A con of how the authors conducted their research is that with the follow up experiment which causes pain to the losing partner could be argued that it is not ethical. In contrast, the Bushman and Gibson state, “Basically, within the ethical limits of the laboratory, participants controlled a weapon that could be used to blast their partner with painful noise.” The authors also state that it is a well-validated laboratory measure of aggression and that it had been used in the past for decades. Another way that the authors could’ve tested the participant’s aggression after 24 hours is with how they would react to maybe losing a certain game or something now going their way so that the authors would be able to evaluate how the participant had reacted and if it was done in an aggressive way. The author’s conclusions were supported by the results of their experiment.
I learned that playing a violent video game for a short period of time could affect the way that one reacts and causes the player to react more with aggression rather than calmly. Also that there could be some serious implications to people that play violent video games for a long period of time and that could cause aggression for more than 24 hours after they turn the game off. I also learned that a person’s personality is affected by things that they do every day such as play video games, talking to their peers, and more. Another thing that I had learned is that personality psychologists have to be prepared for a variety of results to happen and that there are a variety of factors that could interfere with the experiment because of the possibility of a person’s bias or personality type effecting the results.
Tafalla, R. J. (2007). Gender differences in cardiovascular reactivity and game performance related to sensory modality in violent video game play. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37(9), 2008-2023.