Researchers at the University of
York have found no evidence to support the theory that video games make players
more violent. In a series of experiments, with more than 3,000 participants,
the team demonstrated that video game concepts do not 'prime' players to behave
in certain ways and that increasing the realism of violent video games does not
necessarily increase aggression in game players. The dominant model of learning
in games is built on the idea that exposing players to concepts, such as
violence in a game, makes those concepts easier to use in 'real life'. This is
known as 'priming', and is thought to lead to changes in behaviour. Previous
experiments on this effect, however, have so far provided mixed conclusions. Researchers
at the University of York expanded the number of participants in experiments,
compared to studies that had gone before it, and compared different types of
gaming realism to explore whether more conclusive evidence could be found. In
one study, participants played a game where they had to either be a car
avoiding collisions with trucks or a mouse avoiding being caught by a cat.
Following the game, the players were shown various images, such as a bus or a
dog, and asked to label them as either a vehicle or an animal. In a separate
study, the team investigated whether realism influenced the aggression of game
players.
Research in the past has
suggested that the greater the realism of the game the more primed players are
by violent concepts, leading to antisocial effects in the real world. The
experiment compared player reactions to two combat games, one that used
'ragdoll physics' to create realistic character behaviour and one that did not,
in an animated world that nevertheless looked real. Following the game the
players were asked to complete word puzzles called 'word fragment completion
tasks', where researchers expected more violent word associations would be
chosen for those who played the game that employed more realistic behaviours. They
compared the results of this experiment with another test of game realism,
where a single bespoke war game was modified to form two different games. In
one of these games, enemy characters used realistic soldier behaviours, whilst
in the other game they did not employ realistic soldier behaviour. There was no
difference in priming between the game that employed 'ragdoll physics' and the
game that didn't, as well as no significant difference between the games that
used 'real' and 'unreal' solider tactics. The findings suggest that there is no
link between these kinds of realism in games and the kind of effects that video
games are commonly thought to have on their players.
More information: