California State University, Northridge The Effects of Videogame Playing, Watching, and Realism on a Person’s Level of Aggression A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology, General Experimental By Solo Deloatch May 2014 The thesis of Solo Deloatch is approved: _________________________________________ ______________ Dr. Jill Quilici Date _________________________________________ ______________ Dr. Gary Katz Date _________________________________________ ______________ Dr. Shannon Morgan, Chair Date California State University, Northridge ii Table of Contents Signature Page ii Abstract iv SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION 1 SECTION 2: STUDY 1METHOD 12 STUDY 1 RESULTS 17 SECTION 3: STUDY 2 METHOD 22 STUDY 2 RESULTS 23 SECTION 4: DISCUSSION 26 REFERENCES 30 Appendix A: Demographic Questionnaire 33 Appendix B: Aggression Questionnaires 36 iii ABSTRACT The Effects of Videogame Playing, Watching, and Realism On a Person’s Level of Aggression By Solo Deloatch Master of Arts in Psychology, General Experimental Previous studies have investigated the effects of playing violent videogames on aggression by having participants play either non-violent games or extremely violent games and then attaining a measure of aggression. Some research has concluded that a strong association exists between playing violent games and aggression (e.g. Anderson et al., 2010). Other research has indicated that realism plays some mediating role in the relationship between playing violent videogames and aggression (Farrar, Krcmar, Mcgloin, 2011). However, despite the tendency for researchers to claim that exposure to violent videogames makes people more aggressive, there is a tendency amongst researchers in this domain to dismiss the use of pretest/posttest paradigms. Also, research has yet to be conducted on what possible effects watching violent videogame play can have on a person’s level of aggression. This experiment used a pretest/posttest paradigm to test if playing or watching a moderately violent videogame could make someone more aggressive and whether the level of realism of the game would have an effect on aggression as well. Results did not show any significant change in participants’ level of aggression as a result of either watching or playing a moderately violent videogame, or as a result of how realistic the videogame looked. Results indicate that exposure to violent videogames may not directly impact a person’s level of aggression. However a significant order effect found in the experiment may imply that a pretest/posttest paradigm may not be reliable in the field of aggression research. iv SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION The gaming industry has come a long way over a fairly short period of time. In the last few decades, videogames have gone from 8-bit graphics and characters that roughly resemble human beings to displaying beautifully rendered backgrounds, jaw dropping environments, and vividly realistic looking characters. As the industry has grown, it seems as if it has become determined to make videogames look as realistic as possible. This brings up a key question: By making videogames, even only moderately violent videogames, appear more realistic, is the industry unintentionally causing harm? In this study, I will determine whether playing moderately violent videogames can raise a participant’s level of aggression. I will also determine whether simply watching a moderately violent videogame can raise a participant’s level of aggression. Finally, I will determine whether videogame realism plays a part in altering aggression levels when people either play or watch moderately violent videogames. Important Cases An important reason behind the need for research in the field of violent videogame research is that there have been a number of prominent incidents in which people have actually been killed where videogames were blamed. One such incident was the Wilson v. Midway Games case. On November 22, 1997, a 13-year-old boy named Noah Wilson died after his friend stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife. The friend had been playing Mortal Kombat, an extremely violent videogame. Noah’s mother, Andrea Wilson, filed a lawsuit against Midway Games, Inc., the publisher of Mortal Kombat. In her lawsuit, she alleged that the friend who killed her son was so obsessed with the game that he believed he was one of the characters at the time of the incident (itlaw.wikia.com). 1 Another incident involving Mortal Kombat occurred approximately 10 years later. In 2007, a then 17-year-old named Lamar Roberts was at his 17-year-old girlfriend Heather Trujillo’s house babysitting her 7-year-old half-sister Zoe Garcia. During the night, Lamar and his girlfriend assaulted the child, which resulted in her death. Lamar claimed that he was acting out moves from Mortal Kombat as part of his defense and pled guilty. He was sentenced to 36 years in prison, and during this trial was given the moniker of the “Mortal Kombat Murderer” (The Escapist). The final and possibly most disturbing incident where videogames were implicated in a murder occurred in Thailand in 2008. An 18-year-old named Polwat Chino was arrested after he stabbed a taxi driver to death and attempted to steal his taxi. Polwat claimed that he was imitating the game Grand Theft Auto 4 during the incident. This case led to a fervor that resulted in the game being pulled off of shelves in Thailand (dailymail.co.uk). Short-term Effects of Violent Videogame Exposure on Aggression There is a breadth of research in the field looking at how playing violent videogames can affect a person’s aggression. While some studies set out to explore the long-term ramifications of exposure to violent videogames over a lengthy period, other studies set out to determine the immediate effects of violent videogame exposure. Craig Anderson, one of the more prominent names in the field of videogame research, has conducted numerous studies on the immediate effects of playing violent videogames (e.g., Anderson & Barthalow, 2002; Anderson & Dill, 2000; Anderson & Swing, 2007). Anderson and Dill (2000) conducted two experiments investigating the effects violent videogames can have on aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior. In the first study, they used self-report surveys to collect data about the participant’s five favorite videogames, such as how 2 often they played those games, and how much time they spent playing videogames in general. They also used a self-report survey to collect other data such as measures of aggressive behavior, trait aggression, irritability, and delinquency. They concluded that playing violent videogames was positively related to both delinquency and aggressive behavior. In their second study, they had participants play either the violent videogame Wolfenstein 3D, or the nonviolent videogame Myst, and used a competitive reaction time trial to measure the amount of time participants would subject a loser to a loud noise as their measure of aggression. They found that participants who played the violent videogame blasted their opponent for a significantly longer duration than those who played the nonviolent game (Anderson & Dill, 2000). Their conclusion was that exposure to violent videogames makes people aggressive in both the short term and the long term. Another study tested the hypothesis that exposure to violent videogames affects short- term aggression. In this study, 47 undergrads were randomly assigned to play either Mortal Kombat or PGA Tournament Golf (a non-violent videogame) for 10 minutes. After this exposure, participants competed with a confederate in a reaction time task where the participant set the level of punishment to be dealt to the confederate. The results showed that participants who played Mortal Kombat subjected the confederate to a higher mean level of punishment than those who played PGA Tournament Golf (Anderson & Barthalow, 2002). In a 2003 study, Anderson and Murphy conducted an experiment to see if violent videogame exposure affects the short-term aggression of women. In this experiment, 91 undergraduate women were randomly assigned to either play the nonviolent videogame Oh No! More Lemmings, or the violent videogame Street Fighter playing as either a female character, or a male character. After playing the game for 20 minutes, the participants performed a 3 competitive reaction time task to assess their level of aggression and also completed a questionnaire created to measure both instrumentation and revenge motivation. The study showed that that women who played one of the two Street Fighter conditions showed higher aggressive motivation than those who played the nonviolent game, also that women who played a female character reported higher levels of aggressive motivation than those who played a male character. These results not only indicate that violent videogame exposure is related to short- term aggression in women, but also that the gender of the character played likely mediates this association. In 2007, Anderson and Swing published a review article to illuminate how both experimental and cross-sectional studies were showing that violent videogame exposure is highly associated with aggression. This review article showed a number of different published articles and argued that regardless of what methodology was used, or what the measurement criterion was, the research consistently shows that violent videogame exposure makes people more aggressive. It is not just Anderson and his colleagues who have shown these effects. In a study where participants either played the violent videogame Doom, a 2-D first person shooter game, or the non-violent videogame Mahjongg: Clicks for 10 minutes, those who played Doom showed a much greater tendency to associate with aggressive traits on an Implicit Association Task than those who played the Mahjongg game (Uhlmann & Swanson, 2004). Uhlmann and Swanson’s study shows that exposure to violent videogames seems to increase the automatic aggressiveness of those who play them. A study conducted by Bijvank, Bushman, and Konijn (2007) tested to see if identifying with the character played in a violent videogame would make a player more aggressive.