Citation

Carnagey NL, Anderson CA. Psychol. Sci. 2005; 16(11): 882-889.

Affiliation

Iowa State University, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Association for Psychological Science, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01632.x

PMID

16262775

Abstract

Three experiments examined the effects of rewarding and punishing violent actions in video games on later aggression-related variables. Participants played one of three versions of the same race-car video game: (a) a version in which all violence was rewarded, (b) a version in which all violence was punished, and (c) a nonviolent version. Participants were then measured for aggressive affect (Experiment 1), aggressive cognition (Experiment 2), and aggressive behavior (Experiment 3). Rewarding violent game actions increased hostile emotion, aggressive thinking, and aggressive behavior. Punishing violent actions increased hostile emotion, but did not increase aggressive thinking or aggressive behavior. Results suggest that games that reward violent actions can increase aggressive behavior by increasing aggressive thinking.