Citation

Barrington G, Ferguson CJ. Trends Psychol. 2022; 30(3): 497-512.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Brazilian Society of Psychology, Publisher Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s43076-022-00141-2

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This study investigated whether stress or violent content in video games plays a greater role in aggressiveness towards a cooperative partner while playing a video game. It was hypothesized that participants, when exposed to stress, would demonstrate greater aggressiveness toward an incompetent partner than a competent partner. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that participants, when exposed to a violent video game, would demonstrate greater aggression toward an incompetent partner than those exposed to a non-violent video game. Stress was provoked in half of the participants using the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), while others took a simple math quiz. Participants were then assigned to a video game condition, violent or non-violent with a competent or incompetent confederate and completed a reaction time task to measure aggression.

RESULTS indicated that provoked stress and violent content are not linked to aggression in this context.

Language: en

Keywords

Aggressiveness; Stress; Video games; Violent