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Long-term violent video game play does not affect aggression in adults
Playing violent video games every day for 2 months did not negatively affect aggression, impulsivity-related factors, mood, anxiety, empathy, interpersonal competencies or executive control in adults, according to research published in Molecular Psychiatry.
“At present, almost all experimental studies targeting the effects of violent video games on aggression and/or empathy focused on the effects of short-term video game play,” Simone Kühn, PhD, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany, and colleagues wrote. “Studies are needed in which participants are trained over longer periods of time, tested after a longer delay after acute playing and tested with broader batteries assessing aggression but also other relevant domains such as empathy as well as mood and cognition.”
The negative effects observed in previous studies that assessed short-term video game play are prominently the result of priming effects, according to the researchers. Therefore, the present study focused on the effects of long-term violent video game play.
Adult participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: the violent video game group (n = 25) played Grand Theft Auto V for 8 weeks, the active control (n = 24) played the nonviolent game Sims 3 and the passive control group (n = 28) who did not play any game but underwent the same testing. Researchers instructed participants to play the games for at least 30 minutes each day. Using a comprehensive battery consisting of questionnaires and behavioral tests, they measured aggression, sexist attitude, empathy, interpersonal competency, impulsivity, depression, anxiety and executive control before and after 2 months.
Overall, the violent and nonviolent video game groups played 35 hours and 32 hours, respectively, on average during the 8-week period. Kuhn and colleagues did not find any relevant negative effects from long-term violent video game play compared with nonviolent game play or the passive control group. Furthermore, there was no change between baseline and posttest directly after the intervention, nor between baseline and follow-up 2 months after the end of the intervention period, according to the authors.
“The American Psychological Association recently summarized the previous findings on violent video games as indicating that they pose a risk factor for adverse outcomes, including increased aggression and decreased empathy. The present findings of this study clearly contradict this conclusion,” Kühn said in a press release. “We did not find relevant negative effects in response to violent video game playing. The fact that we assessed multiple domains, not finding an effect in any of them, makes the present study the most comprehensive in the field.” – by Savannah Demko
Disclosures: The others report not relevant financial disclosures.