Effect of Playing Violent Video Games Cooperatively or Competitively on Subsequent Cooperative Behavior

Abstract

Research on video games has yielded consistent findings that violent video games increase aggression and decrease prosocial behavior. However, these studies typically examined single-player games. Of interest is the effect of cooperative play in a violent video game on subsequent cooperative or competitive behavior. Participants played Halo II (a first-person shooter game) cooperatively or competitively and then completed a modified prisoner's dilemma task to assess competitive and cooperative behavior. Compared with the competitive play conditions, players in the cooperative condition engaged in more tit-for-tat behaviors-a pattern of behavior that typically precedes cooperative behavior. The social context of game play influenced subsequent behavior more than the content of the game that was played.

Using knowledge from human research to improve understanding of contest theory and contest dynamics

“…In other words, the gametheoretic models that are used to create predictions can be used to create actual games, and we can have humans play them to test those predictions. Video games are a particularly useful means of exploring human contests as the interactive and immersive nature of video games elicit neural [100,101], physiological [102,103] and behavioural [104,105] responses that mirror those of real contests. Evidence suggests that repeated play improves many cognitive abilities [106,107].…”

Electronic Gaming and Psychosocial Adjustment

“…Games provide a wide range of novel cognitive challenges, opportunities for exploration, relaxation, and socialization with peers. Research focusing on the potential benefits of games indicates they may bolster adjustment by providing psychologically rewarding experiences 11 that dispel negative affect, 12 inspire prosocial behavior, 13 foster creativity, 14 as well as broaden self-concept 15 and build social connections. 16 In addition, playing some types of games may serve to minimize externalizing problems by building executive control, 17 attention skills, 18 healthy behavior, 3 and visuospatial abilities.…”

The No-Effect of Player Role in Digital Games on Prosocial Behavior

“…A possible explanation is that, once the participants played as a team member (even as a warrior), it could increase the occurrence of prosocial behaviors (Ewoldsen et al, 2012a;Greitemeyer & Cox, 2013;Greitemeyer et al, 2012). Therefore, we think that further studies are necessary to investigate this alternative hypothesis, including comparing violent and prosocial roles in competitive and cooperative games.…”

“…Studies suggest, for example, that playing in a competitive or collaborative way could modify the chances of prosocial or antisocial behaviors to occur. Cooperation games, in this sense, could be associated with more prosocial behaviors (Ewoldsen et al, 2012b;Greitemeyer & Cox, 2013;Greitemeyer et al, 2012). Other studies shows that contextual characteristics of the avatar played (Dolgov, Graves, Nearents, Schwark, & Volkman, 2014) and character motivation (Gitter, Ewell, Guadagno, Stillman, & Baumeister, 2013) also could play a signifi cant role on the occurrence of prosocial behavior outside the game.…”