The effect of reward and punishment in violent video games on aggressive affect, cognition, and behavior

Longer you play, the more hostile you feel: examination of first person shooter video games and aggression during video game play

“…The study of short-term effects of video game play continued into the late 1990s and early 2000s and found consistent results with the previous decades of research, suggesting that aggression levels increase after playing a violent video game [Anderson and Dill, 2000;Panee and Ballard, 2002]. Overall, aggression levels have been shown to increase after playing a violent video game in children [Emes, 1997], women and men [Anderson and Murphy, 2003;Bartholow and Anderson, 2002], and across different video game genres, such as FPSGs [Anderson and Dill, 2000], driving games [Carnagey and Anderson, 2005], action/adventure games [Panee and Ballard, 2002], and fighting games [Ballard and Wiest, 1996;Bartholow and Anderson, 2002].…”

“…Therefore, finding a variable to study between video games (and not within a single video game) may be problematic from an experimental control point of view, owing to the numerous differences between video games. Some recent video game studies [Ballard and Wiest, 1996;Carnagey and Anderson, 2005] have found variables of interest to study within the same video game, giving the researchers increased experimental control. Carnagey and Anderson [2005] had participants play the racing game Carmageddon (a car racing game whose objective is to win a race) with a differing reward option as the independent variable, whereas Ballard and Wiest [1996] had the participants play Mortal Kombat II (a fighter game whose object is to physically attack an opponent) with the blood turned on or off.…”

Violent video games and forgiveness

“…Experimental procedures used in other research areas that involve creating a conflict context for the participant could serve as a model. A common procedure for provocation in experiments of aggression is to have the participant write an essay on a topic of personal importance (e.g., opinion on abortion; see Carnagey & Anderson, 2005, Experiment 3). The participant is then led to believe that a "partner" (who they are told is another participant that they will not interact with directly) has read and critiqued their essay by completing an Essay Evaluation Form.…”