Citation

Gitter SA, Ewell PJ, Guadagno RE, Stillman TF, Baumeister RF. Aggressive Behav. 2013; 39(5): 346-354.

Affiliation

Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ab.21487

PMID

23650097

Abstract

Previous work has shown that playing violent video games can stimulate aggression toward others. The current research has identified a potential exception. Participants who played a violent game in which the violence had an explicitly prosocial motive (i.e., protecting a friend and furthering his nonviolent goals) were found to show lower short-term aggression (Study 1) and show higher levels of prosocial cognition (Study 2) than individuals who played a violent game in which the violence was motivated by more morally ambiguous motives. Thus, violent video games that are framed in an explicitly prosocial context may evoke more prosocial sentiments and thereby mitigate some of the short-term effects on aggression observed in previous research. While these findings are promising regarding the potential aggression-reducing effects of prosocial context, caution is still warranted as a small effect size difference (d = .2-.3), although nonsignificant, was still observed between those who played the explicitly prosocial violent game and those who played a nonviolent game; indicating that aggressive behavior was not completely eliminated by the inclusion of a prosocial context for the violence. Aggr. Behav. 9999:XX-XX, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en