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Effects of Exposure to Video Games on Aggression, Empathy, Sexism, & Prejudice
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation (Electronic Copy Not Available)
Keywords
Violence in video games; Video games--Psychological aspects;
Abstract
Video games are an important part of many people’s daily lives, but this has also become a cause for concern. The current study expands upon previous work regarding mediators and moderators of violent video game play and aggression. Many studies examine the mediating and moderating effects of personality traits, but far fewer address the strength and magnitude of the relationship between video game play and player habits (i.e. games played and for how long). In addition to the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire and hostile expectation bias vignettes, participants will respond to questionnaires that assess empathy, racism, sexism, and homophobia. Since prior research suggests that trait aggression and being male make the relationship between violent video game play and negative outcomes stronger (Anderson & Dill, 2000), I predict that length (playing video games more often) and type of video games played (more violent video games) will interact to increase aggression (hostile expectation bias), sexism, and prejudice toward African-Americans, but decrease empathy. I hypothesize that trait aggression (Aggression Questionnaire) will moderate the interaction between length and type of video game play and aggression (hostile expectation bias). This should provide corroborating evidence for past findings. The current study seeks to examine the strength of these relationships in a college and mTurk sample, but will focus on video games in general, not just violent video games. Data has not yet been collected for this study, but it will be partially collected by the date of the graduate symposium.
Start Date
3-4-2019 11:00 AM
End Date
3-4-2019 1:00 PM
Faculty Advisor
Nicholas Schwab
Department
Department of Psychology
Copyright
©2019 Chelsea Washburn
File Format
application/pdf
Embargo Date
4-16-2019
Effects of Exposure to Video Games on Aggression, Empathy, Sexism, & Prejudice
Video games are an important part of many people’s daily lives, but this has also become a cause for concern. The current study expands upon previous work regarding mediators and moderators of violent video game play and aggression. Many studies examine the mediating and moderating effects of personality traits, but far fewer address the strength and magnitude of the relationship between video game play and player habits (i.e. games played and for how long). In addition to the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire and hostile expectation bias vignettes, participants will respond to questionnaires that assess empathy, racism, sexism, and homophobia. Since prior research suggests that trait aggression and being male make the relationship between violent video game play and negative outcomes stronger (Anderson & Dill, 2000), I predict that length (playing video games more often) and type of video games played (more violent video games) will interact to increase aggression (hostile expectation bias), sexism, and prejudice toward African-Americans, but decrease empathy. I hypothesize that trait aggression (Aggression Questionnaire) will moderate the interaction between length and type of video game play and aggression (hostile expectation bias). This should provide corroborating evidence for past findings. The current study seeks to examine the strength of these relationships in a college and mTurk sample, but will focus on video games in general, not just violent video games. Data has not yet been collected for this study, but it will be partially collected by the date of the graduate symposium.
