First-person shooters don’t just make gamers more aggressive

Gaming consumption on computers has steadily increased over the past few decades, and the pandemic has given many people even more opportunities to play games. Many cases involve violent video games, and opinions are divided on whether they lead to aggression – there’s no definitive consensus even in scientific circles: some say first-person shooters gamers are becoming more aggressive; others think these can differentiate between the real world and video games; a third view points to the cathartic effect of reducing aggressive impulses through media violence. Tobias Greitemeyer is a social psychologist with a focus on media research at the University of Innsbruck and says that violent computer games increase aggression. In 2014 he published a meta-analysis on this, albeit small, effect.

Social phenomena infect us
The social psychologist started with the lesser-known prosocial side: his research, which was supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, showed that computer gamers who help virtual characters alone or in a team are therefore more useful in the real world. So society benefits from it.

In his recently completed follow-up project, Greitemeyer investigated the aggression potential of computer games with the support of the FWF. To this end, the psychologist has formulated a complex question in two stages: “Social phenomena are contagious. If I know someone who has gained weight, I am more likely to gain a few pounds as well. I was curious whether the effects of computer games are just as contagious.’ become more aggressive. But is there a second level of infection, Greitemeyer thought: “What if my computer-playing friend becomes more aggressive? Will I also become more aggressive even when I’m not playing?”

Complex study setting
Based on his hypotheses, the researcher started experiments in the laboratory. Due to ethical considerations, only adults were chosen as subjects. In the experimental study, a randomly selected group of people played a violent or non-violent game: in the subsequent measurement, the subjects who played violent games were slightly more aggressive.

In the second step, the aggression level of a second group of non-gamers was measured: they were more aggressive if they had a friend who had previously played a violent computer game. It is also remarkable that they did not have to be victims of their violence, but that it was sufficient if they saw an aggressive action by the friend.

The second phase of the research was through social network studies. In the first design, the egocentric social network, subjects were asked how many aggressive computer games they or their environment play and how aggressive they are. The second design, which required a lot of computing power, was more complex. An extensive social network with numerous links was recorded: who knows who, who is playing aggressive games and how aggressive are the people (nodes) in the network?

“Our series of studies show the effect of gamers becoming more aggressive when playing violent games. The contagion effect seems to be even stronger when people around me are aggressive – then I will too, even if I’m just observing it. The player’s social environment reacts with heightened aggression,” Greitemeyer summarizes.

general social impact
The research team involved in the project emphasizes that the effects on a single person are small, because aggression is multidimensionally influenced by many triggers in everyday life, such as partners, children, colleagues or even video games. However, from a general social perspective, there is a significant effect, because about five million people play games in Austria, emphasizes Tobias Greitemeyer: “Interventions to reduce computer game consumption can reduce gamers’ aggression. In addition, people who do not play themselves, such as brothers and sisters, benefit from this. So if you start with the player, you reach the whole social environment by reducing aggression, which is relevant.”

Are there gender differences? In general, females are less aggressive than males. But both are about equally affected by video game consumption, and they are also equally affected by other people being aggressive.

Look at gaming differently
In short, computer games put many parents on guard, and Greitemeyer recommends taking a differentiated view of this. “When I think of cooperative games, I used to play football. Nowadays my son plays computer games with his friends and talks about it, you don’t have to be lonely here, there is a social bond.” When you play first person shooters, there are also positive effects, such as improving spatial perception Controversy often arises after shootings, when it is revealed that the perpetrators were playing Counter-Strike – although that’s what millions of people who don’t run away play However, parents should take a look and pay attention to the age recommendations, as many games are only allowed from the age of 18.