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Violent and nonviolent video games differentially affect physical aggression for individuals high vs. low in dispositional anger
Author(s) -
Engelhardt Christopher R.,
Bartholow Bruce D.,
Saults J. Scott
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
aggressive behavior
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.223
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1098-2337
pISSN - 0096-140X
DOI - 10.1002/ab.20411
Subject(s) - anger , aggression , psychology , video game , trait , arousal , poison control , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , injury prevention , human factors and ergonomics , developmental psychology , medical emergency , communication , multimedia , medicine , computer science , programming language
Although numerous experiments have shown that exposure to violent video games (VVG) causes increases in aggression, relatively few studies have investigated the extent to which this effect differs as a function of theoretically relevant individual difference factors. This study investigated whether video game content differentially influences aggression as a function of individual differences in trait anger. Participants were randomly assigned to play a violent or nonviolent video game before completing a task in which they could behave aggressively. Results showed that participants high in trait anger were the most aggressive, but only if they first played a VVG. This relationship held while statistically controlling for dimensions other than violent content on which game conditions differed (e.g. frustration, arousal). Implications of these findings for models explaining the effects of video games on behavior are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 37:539–546, 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.