Citation

Diaz RL, Wong U, Hodgins DC, Chiu CG, Goghari VM. Aggressive Behav. 2015; 42(1): 16-28.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, International Society for Research on Aggression, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ab.21602

PMID

26299393

Abstract

Violent video game playing has been associated with both positive and negative effects on cognition. We examined whether playing two or more hours of violent video games a day, compared to not playing video games, was associated with a different pattern of recognition of five facial emotions, while controlling for general perceptual and cognitive differences that might also occur. Undergraduate students were categorized as violent video game players (n = 83) or non-gamers (n = 69) and completed a facial recognition task, consisting of an emotion recognition condition and a control condition of gender recognition. Additionally, participants completed questionnaires assessing their video game and media consumption, aggression, and mood. Violent video game players recognized fearful faces both more accurately and quickly and disgusted faces less accurately than non-gamers. Desensitization to violence, constant exposure to fear and anxiety during game playing, and the habituation to unpleasant stimuli, are possible mechanisms that could explain these results. Future research should evaluate the effects of violent video game playing on emotion processing and social cognition more broadly. Aggr. Behav. 9999:1-13, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Language: en