1 of 16 -374 152-08/11512.00 oI 8 337 a00 The Effect of Video Game Competition a

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1 of 16 -374 152-08/11512.00 oI 8 337 a00 The Effect of Video Game Competition and Violence on Aggressive Behavior: Which Characteristic Has the Greatest Influence? Paul J. C. Adachi and Teena Willoughby Brock University, Canada Objective: This stady is the first to our knowledge to isolate the effect of video game violence and competitiveness on aggressive behavior. Method: In Pilot Study 1, a violent and nonviolent video game were matched on competitiveness, difficulty, and pace of action, and the effect of each game on aggressive behavior was then compared using an unambiguous measure of aggressive behavior (ie., the Hot Sauce Paradigm) in Experiment 1. In Pilot Study 2, competitiveness was isolated by matching games on difficulty and pace of action, and systematically controlling for violence. The effect of video game competition on aggressive behavior was then examined in Experiment 2 Resalts: We found that video game violence was not sufficient to elevate aggressive behavior compared with a nonviolent video game, and that more competitive games produced greater levels of aggressive behavior, irrespective of the amount of violence in the games. Conclusion: It appears that competition, not violence, may be the video game characteristic that has the greatest influence on aggressive behavior. Future research is needed to explore the mechanisms through which video game competitive- ness influences aggressive behavior, as well as whether this relation holds in the long-term. Keywords: violent video games, aggressive behavior, competitiveness, violence The effect of violent video games on aggres- Skorie, 2005), other research has shown that sion, which is defined as behavior that is in playing violent video games produces higher tended to harm another individual (Coie& levels of aggressive behavior, aggressive cogni- Dodge, 1998), is a hot topic today as video tion, aggressive affect, and physiological games continue to increase in popularity. For arousal in the short-term than nonviolent video instance, a large scale study in the United States games (see Anderson, Gentile,&Buckley; found that 88% of youth aged 8 to 18 yearsplay 2007). However, there are three major limita- tions with the studies that have found an effect. quency, youth played 3 or 4 times per week on First, to date, no study has matched a violent and nonviolent video game on competitiveness, time spent playing video games per week difficulty, and pace of action simultaneously and thus, the violent content has not been iso- lated. Consequently, it is unclear whether the responsible for elevated levels of aggression. Second, previous experi- mental studies have tended to use a measure of aggression that may also measure competitive- This article was published Online First August 13, 2011ness, leading to questions about whether violent video games are related to aggression or com- from the Social Sci petitiveness. Third, the effect of video game ences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the competition on aggressive behavior has not been examined. Hence, the goal of the current study was to examine whether a violent video video games Gentile, 2009). In terms of fre- average (median), and the average amount of was 13.2 hours. Although some research has failed to find a relation between violent video game play and aggression (e.g.. Ferguson & Reuda, 2010, Ferguson ct al, 2008; Wiliase content alone is Paul J. C Adachi and Teena Willoughby, Department of Psychology. Brock University, Ontario, Canada. Owl Children's Trust Correspondence conceming this article should be ad dressed to Paul J. C. Adachi, Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, L2S game produced greater levels of aggression than a nonviolent video game using an unambiguous A1. E-mail: pa08tg@ brocku.ca 259

Explanation / Answer

Part 1: After reading the study, I could understand the effects that video games have on the minds of people. The effects vary depending on the type of video games that are being played, violent or non violent. It was checked if these video games had aggressive behavioural effects on these children who were engaging themselves in these games. There were certain good attributes isolated, such as competitiveness, though this competitive nature in this case was more violent and associated with aggressive behaviour. What I thought was interesting is the result. Expected result was violent games imparting aggressive nature to the players, but the result turned out that non violent games would impart greater competitiveness coupled to aggression. In psychology, this research would help by providing a new insight on how competitiveness could incite aggressive behaviours , which hasn't been looked into, since this is one of the first of such studies.

Part 2: review of literature has been done to an extensive basis. Hypothesis formulated has been such that competition and aggression could be related in comparison of both violent and non violent video games and aggression was measured. Before starting the experiment, a pilot study was also conducted before conducting the final experiment. Though, in the given experiments, results discussions and conclusions have not been shown, hence cannot comment on the same.

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