Introduction
Violent video games have become a common form of entertainment for teenagers. However, the effect of such games on violence has prompted parents, policymakers, and experts to examine the problem seriously. As exposure to violence and its realistic representation in video games is becoming more common, it is particularly important to consider the possible consequences of such content on the development of the adolescent brain. Although some people think that playing violent video games is a secure avenue for the expression of aggression, there is vast evidence that shows playing these games can raise aggressive cognitions, emotions, and behaviors in adolescents. This literature review will examine the current research on the relationship between violent video game exposure and aggressive behavior in adolescents, arguing that playing violent video games is associated with increased aggression in teens. By synthesizing findings from experimental, longitudinal, and meta-analytic studies, this review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the link between violent video games and adolescent aggression while also considering potential moderating factors such as individual differences and social influences.
Research Hypothesis: Adolescents who play violent video games for 3+ hours per week will score higher on measures of physical aggression compared to adolescents who do not play any violent video games, controlling for baseline aggression levels.
Background on Violent Video Games
Violent video games are now widespread in the video game industry, and according to Gabbiadini et al. (2022), about half of all the video games rated 12+ have violent elements in them, such as blood and gore. Such games usually display characters who often commit acts of brutality in the form of fights, shootings, and killings (Zhang et al., 2021a). The dominance of violent video games among teens is one of the remarkable phenomena, with research showing that more than 85% of video games played by youth have some level of violence (Addo et al., 2021). In China, for example, the number of online video game players reached 532 million by March 2020, with a penetration rate of over 70% among middle school students (Li et al., 2020). Similarly, 90% of U.S. teens play video games on various platforms (Verheijen et al., 2021). The majority of youth show a preference for action-packed and violent games (López-Fernández et al., 2021), and the correlation between age and the time spent playing these games is highest between ages 12 and 14 in comparison to the younger and older age groups (Burkhardt & Lenhard, 2022). Longitudinal research has revealed that the popularity of violent video games among young people follows a curvilinear play pattern across the ten years of observation (Coyne & Stockdale, 2021). The fact that adolescents use and access violent video games has raised concerns that they might modify their aggressive behavior, and this is supported by research showing a direct relation between violent video games and aggressive behavior in both Eastern and Western cultures (Zheng et al., 2021 and Zhang et al., 2021b).
Theories Linking Violent Games and Aggression
Various psychological theories have been proposed for the causation connection between violent video games and aggression, which helps in understanding the process through which exposure to violent content could trigger aggressive thinking, feelings, and behaviors among youths as a result. The General Aggression Model (GAM) is one of the most well-known conceptual models (Addo et al., 2021; Zhang et al., 2021a). The GAM implies that situational factors like being exposed to violent video games, as well as individual factors like attitude towards violence, affect an individual’s state, thereby influencing their cognition, emotion, and physiological arousal (Zhang et al., 2021a). Similarly, this leads to an individual’s decision-making and behavioral changes, which might result in increased aggression. The model further suggests that repeated exposure to violent video games can lead to long-term changes in aggressive beliefs, attitudes, perceptual and expectation schemata, and desensitization to aggression (Addo et al., 2021). This cyclical process may result in the development of an aggressive personality over time (Zhang et al., 2021a).
Social learning theory also enriches the whole explanation of the connection between aggressive video games and aggression (Zhang et al., 2021b). According to this theory, people adopt aggressiveness from their aggressive models, where the models may be people who behave aggressively in real life or in video games (Zhang et al., 2021b). A possible mechanism behind the connection between youth violence and video games is that the youth who play violent games develop aggressive scripts and schemas from the games, which makes it easier for the youths to use the standing aggressed thoughts and thus more likely to commit acts of violence to others (Zhang et al., 2021b).The inter-synaptic connection of video games may increase the learning impact because players are immediately involved in the use of violence and are rewarded for their aggressive actions (Zheng et al., 2021).
Another significant concept in the context of violent video games’ influence on aggression is the desensitization theory. Repetitive intake of violent content may result in an emotional desensitization to violence, which leads to decreased awareness of the harmful consequences of violent behavior (Zheng et al., 2021). This kind of disconnection has been attributed to the GAM theory, which explains how exposure to violent media, such as video games, can result in the weakening of a physiological arousal response to violence (Addo et al., 2021). As a result, players may become less empathetic toward victims of violence and more accepting of aggressive behavior as a normal or appropriate response to conflict (Gabbiadini et al., 2022). The development of hostile attribution bias, which makes people likely to perceive ambiguous behaviors as threatening to themselves and react with violence, may be one of the consequences of desensitization to violence (Zheng et al., 2021).
Empirical Evidence on Violent Games and Aggression in Adolescents
Experimental research has shown the immediacy of video game violence exposure to the aggressive cognitions and behaviors of adolescents. For instance, Zhang et al. (2021a) ran an experiment involving 300 Chinese children (Ages 6-7) who were separated into two groups: the ones that played either a violent or non-violent video game for 25 minutes. The outcome showed that the children who played violent video games showed a massive increase in cognition and behavior of aggression, whereas the group who played non-violent games showed less increase in them. Furthermore, a statistically significant relation was found between group and sex, with the male participants in violent game conditions showing more aggression than females.
In another experiment, Gabbiadini et al. (2022) measured the efficacy of a short self-control task in minimizing the detrimental immediate effects of violent video games on adolescents. The study involved 157 Italian high school students (ages 13-19) randomly assigned to violent or non-violent video games and then showed them an intervention that was intended to induce either weak beliefs in self-control capabilities or strong beliefs in self-control capabilities. The data presented that the teens who participated in violent video games developed a higher level of aggressive behavior and impulse inhibition. However, inducing strong beliefs in self-control capabilities via a brief article mitigated these adverse effects, suggesting that interventions targeting self-control may be efficacious in truncating the adverse impact of violent video games on adolescents.
Through the use of longitudinal studies, researchers have come to identify the longer-term relations between exposure to violent video games and adolescent aggression. Coyne and Stockdale (2021) assessed the interrelationship between violent gaming and adolescent aggression for ten consecutive years by means of a longitudinal study. The study involved 500 participants (aged 10-13 at the beginning of the study) who were evaluated once a year during the period of grades 7 through 10. The results identified three distinct trajectories of violent video game play: high initial violence, moderate, and low increasers. Adolescents who belong to the moderate group displayed the highest levels of aggressive behavior in the final wave. This indicates that how long adolescents are exposed to playing video games that contain violent scenes, rather than how high the adolescent’s initial exposure to violent video games is, may have more of an impact on long-term aggression. Zheng et al. (2021) conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate the link between violence exposure in video games and anger, in addition to exploring the roles that include anger rumination and self-control. The study selected 595 Chinese college students (mean age = 19.459 years) who completed measures of playing violent video games, anger rumination, self-control, and aggression. The results demonstrated that more exposure to violent video games entailed a higher risk of morality detachment and an increased level of adolescent aggression. Moreover, in turn, the association between video game violence exposure and physical aggression was moderated by anger rumination and hostility, which partially mediated the relationship.
Through meta-analysis, aggregate results of multiple studies have been presented and comprehended, and the influence of violent video games on the aggression of adolescents has been revealed. Burkhardt and Lenhard (2022) conducted a metanalysis, which focused on the long-term, age-related effects of violent video games on aggression. This analysis comprised thirty effect sizes from 21 studies, with a sum of 15,836 participants. The results yielded a significant positive effect of violent video game exposure on subsequent physically aggressive behavior (r = .21), which remained significant (r = .11) when controlling for aggression at the initial time point. Moreover, the study found a significant curvilinear relationship between age and effect size, with the strongest effects observed in early adolescence (peak at age 14).
Meanwhile, in another meta-analysis study, Prescott et al. (2018) looked at the link between violent video games and spatial aggression trends over time, drawing from too many longitudinal studies only. The research was conducted using the coefficients standardized from various studies and taking into consideration confounding factors. The findings indicated the existence of a smaller but still noticeable association (r= .11) between exposure to violent video games and physical aggression. Nevertheless, according to the findings of López-Fernández et al. (2021), some researchers have the opinion that the findings have been overestimated because of these publication’s biases and methodological difficulties.
According to Li et al. (2020), in line with the cross-sectional study of 630 Chinese adolescents, the effect of violent video game exposure on moral disengagement and aggression of adolescents was the same; it was also shown that anger rumination, hostility, and physical aggression partially mediated the relationship between violent video game exposure and the physical aggression. Similarly, Zhang et al. (2021b) investigated the effects of violent video games on players’ and observers’ aggressive cognitions and behaviors in a sample of 192 Chinese children (age 12). The results showed that players displayed more aggressive cognitions and behaviors than observers, with boys exhibiting more aggression than girls in the violent game condition.
Verheijen et al. (2021) applied a longitudinal social network method to investigate how peers’ behaviors towards violent video games may affect the link between violent game exposure and aggression among teenagers. The study was comprised of (N = 796) Dutch students (M = 12.60 years) who were assessed twice with a time gap of one year. The results indicated homotypic selection effects, meaning that adolescents built friendships with other adolescents who were similar in regard to aggression and exposure to violent video games. Additionally, friends got more violent and similar in aggression level through the process but not violent video game exposure (socialization effect). In addition, the research discovered that the extent of violent video games’ influence on aggression was more prominent among those teens with disruptive peers, which pointed to the need for analyzing social contexts when assessing this relationship.
Conclusion
Empirical evidence from experimental, longitudinal, and meta-analytic studies consistently supports the link between violent video game exposure and increased aggression, with the strongest effects observed in early adolescence. However, it is important to acknowledge the limitations of the existing research, such as the potential for publication bias and the need for more longitudinal studies that control for initial levels of aggression. Future research should continue to investigate the complex interplay of individual, familial, and social factors that may moderate the relationship between violent video games and aggression, as well as the effectiveness of interventions designed to mitigate these harmful effects.
References
Addo, P. C., Fang, J., Kulbo, N. B., Gumah, B., Dagadu, J. C., & Li, L. (2021). Violent video games and aggression among young adults: the moderating effects of adverse environmental factors. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(1), 17-23.
Burkhardt, J., & Lenhard, W. (2022). A meta-analysis on the longitudinal, age-dependent effects of violent video games on aggression. Media Psychology, 25(3), 499-512.
Coyne, S. M., & Stockdale, L. (2021). Growing up with grand theft auto: A 10-year study of longitudinal growth of violent video game play in adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(1), 11–16.
Gabbiadini, A., Riva, P., Andrighetto, L., Volpato, C., & Bushman, B. J. (2022). Preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of a brief self‐control intervention on reducing the short‐term harmful consequences of violent video games on adolescents. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 52(4), 246-258.
Li, J., Du, Q., & Gao, X. (2020). Adolescent aggression and violent video games: The role of moral disengagement and parental rearing patterns. Children and Youth Services Review, 118, 105370.
López-Fernández, F. J., Mezquita, L., Etkin, P., Griffiths, M. D., Ortet, G., & Ibáñez, M. I. (2021). The role of violent video game exposure, personality, and deviant peers in aggressive behaviors among adolescents: A two-wave longitudinal study. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(1), 32-40.
Prescott, A. T., Sargent, J. D., & Hull, J. G. (2018). Meta-analysis of the relationship between violent video game play and physical aggression over time. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(40), 9882–9888.
Verheijen, G. P., Burk, W. J., Stoltz, S. E., van den Berg, Y. H., & Cillessen, A. H. (2021). A longitudinal social network perspective on adolescents’ exposure to violent video games and aggression. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(1), 24-31.
Zhang, Q., Cao, Y., & Tian, J. (2021). Effects of violent video games on aggressive cognition and aggressive behavior. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(1), 5–10.
Zhang, Q., Cao, Y., & Tian, J. (2021). Effects of violent video games on players’ and observers’ aggressive cognitions and aggressive behaviors. Journal of experimental child psychology, p. 203, 105005.
Zheng, X., Chen, H., Wang, Z., Xie, F., & Bao, Z. (2021). Online violent video games and online aggressive behavior among Chinese college students: The role of anger rumination and self‐control. Aggressive behavior, 47(5), 514-520.
write