Models for Aggressive Behavior: The Attributes of Violent Characters in Popular Video Games

Communication Studies, Dec 2005 by Lachlan, Kenneth A, Smith, Stacy L, Tamborini, Ron

Justification

The second research question attempted to address differences in justification for violence among different types of perpetrators. The first set of analyses looked at perpetrator ethnicity. When collapsing ethnicity into white, Asian, and other, significant differences emerged in whether or not violent exchanges were justified χ^sup 2^(2, N = 796) = 311.85, p

Significant differences also emerged in examining justification among perpetrators of different ages χ^sup 2^(4, N = 1389) = 118.58, p

Differences were also found among characters that were portrayed as liked versus disliked, χ^sup 2^(1, N = 1389) = 20.577, p

Graphicness

Differences in the graphicness of violent depictions were evaluated based on the level of depicted harm. This resulted in significant differences across all of the variables under consideration. All categories for ethnicity were seen as engaging in mild violence most often, χ^sup 2^(6, N= 796) = 40.2, p

Significant differences were also found for sex, χ^sup 2^(3, N = 1075) = 28.1, p

Finally, differences between liked/disliked characters also produced significant results, χ^sup 2^(3, N = 1389) = 77.99, p

Discussion

The aim of this study was to examine aggressive, violent characters in popular video games and assess what threat they may pose based on demographic considerations for similarity and also for character attractiveness. The results show different contextual features of violence are associated with different types of perpetrators. Simply put, there are a wide variety of aggressive role models in violent video games which present physical aggression in such a way that increases the risk of learning aggression in different ways to different audiences. Specifically, the presentation of violent perpetrators that game players may perceive as demographically similar to themselves, that behave in ways that make them likable, and that engage in extensive violence for normatively justified reasons may contribute toward the learning of aggressive attitudes and behaviors.

In terms of Research Question 1, the results paint a picture of the types of violent characters commonly found in video games. They suggest that most violent characters are human, providing accessible and realistic aggressive role models after whom players may imitate behavior, contingent of course upon many other variables. These violent characters are predominantly adults. If we consider perceived similarity to be the most important factor in determining likelihood to learn behavior, then this is does not present particular alarm in terms of potential aggressive responses in children. However, there are growing numbers of adult video game players who may be susceptible to learning from these aggressive models. Further, if we are to consider the most dangerous aggressive role models to be those that children would most want to be like, then we have a different scenario, as children may look to adult characters as role models of some kind. Future studies in the area in the area of video game effects on children should attempt to clear up this discrepancy by identifying which of these two factors is most important in terms of perpetrator attractiveness and likelihood to imitate.