Citation

Sofia FM, Klimenko MA. Psychol. Pop. Media Cult. 2019; 8(3): 251-258.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Educational Publishing Foundation of the American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/ppm0000171

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

If analyzing and reflecting upon morally ambiguous situations allows for a potential, significant improvement in moral competence, then activities such as video games, which allow opportunities for such instances to occur, may have a similar, positive effect. The present study found some evidence to that. College students enrolled in an online class, who agreed to participate, were randomly assigned to either the experimental or the control group. Those in the experimental group were exposed to a clip of a moral dilemma from a popular video game, whereas those in the control group received no such exposure. In both the control and the experimental group, moral competence was measured using the moral competence test both before and after the exposure to the moral dilemma.

RESULTS showed that participants who indicated playing video games more frequently had a significantly greater increase in moral competence than those who indicated playing fewer or no video games. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)

Language: en

Keywords

Competence; Computer Games; Exposure; Morality; Social Dilemma; Violence