Violence and Narrative in Video Games & the Effect on Stress

Casey Chadwick and Brittany BittnerFaculty Advisor: Dr. Dawn BlaskoPenn State Erie, The Behrend College

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

AbstractResearch has disagreed on the positive and negative effects of video games. In the current study we attempt to assess whether violent video games impact the ability to reduce stress. The most popular games tend to be violent and may have a desensitization effect. This may be due to the narrative aspect of the game. Participants in this study were randomly assigned to play a violent video game (with a narrative or without), or a nonviolent video game (with a narrative or without). In order to increase stress, participants completed the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task. To assess whether there were changes in stress, participants were given a pre and post current mood survey. They also completed a Serious Game Measure that examined perceptions of video games. Results showed that stress was increased after completing the stressful task and decreased after playing the game. The results showed no significant differences between game type (violent, nonviolent). Those who experience more flow showed a greater decrease in stress level than those who didn’t experience flow.

Procedure:Participants - N=53, 47% female, (ages 18-33) IRB approval

Measures - Mood Survey

- e.g. “On a scale from 1 – 5 how stressed do you currently feel?”

- Serious Game Measure (Blasko-Drabik, 2011)

- e.g. “I became unaware of my surroundings by playing the game” (Likert Scale rating)

- Self-created Video Games Experience Questionnaire

- e.g. “How many hours a week do you play video games?”

Analysis- 2 (stress time: time 2, time 3 ) X 2 (violence: violent, nonviolent) X 2 (narrative: narrative, no narrative) mixed ANOVA

Paced Serial Addition Test (PASAT)

Heard Answer

Discussion- Despite the nature of the game, stress was reduced after playing (Mood Management Theory)

- People look for something to help them recuperate and get rid of negative emotions and bring in positive ones

- Easier to enter flow when playing the nonviolent game rather than the violent game

- Flow was overall higher in the nonviolent video game, despite the presence of narrative.

- Those who played the nonviolent game without a narrative experienced more flow than those who played the nonviolent game with a narrative.

- In violent video games, those who had a narrative experienced flow more than those without a narrative.

Future Research Questions- Are exercise video games more effective at reducing stress than other games and if so, why?

- Do they have more of an effect on stress since it is combining exercise and video games together?

- Age could also be considered in future studies

- Many older people using exercise games in the world today

- Differences in enjoyment and arousal in these two age groups could be researched.

ReferencesAnderson, C. A., Ihori, N., Bushman, B. J., Rothstein, H. R., Shibuya, A., Swing, E. L., Sakamoto, A., &

Saleem, M. (2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in eastern and western countries: A Meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 136(2), 151-173. doi:10.1037/a0018251

Bartholow, B. D., & Anderson, C. A. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior: Potential sex differences. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 283-290. doi:10.1006/jesp.2001.1502

Engelhardt, C.R. Bartholow, B. D., & Saults, J. S. (2011). Violent and nonviolent video games differentially affect physical aggression for individuals high vs. low in dispositional behavior. Aggressive Behavior, 37, 539-546.

Inal, Y., & Cagiltay, K. (2007). Flow experiences of children in an interactive social games environment [Electronic version]. British Journal of Educational Technology, 38(3), 455-464. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2007.00709.x

Payne, B. R., Jackson, J. J., Stine-Morrow, E. A., & Noh, S. R. (2011, March 28). In the zone: flow state and cognition in older adults [Electronic version]. Psychology and Aging, 26(3), 738-743. doi:10.1037/a0022359

Reinecke, L. (2009). The Use of video and computer games to recuperate from stress and strain. Journal of Media Psychology, 21(3), 126-142. doi:10.1027/1864-1105.21.3.126

Zillmann, D. (1988a). Mood management through communication choices. American Behavioral Scientist, 31, 327–340.

Dangers of Video Games

- The best selling video games are often the most violent. (e.g. Mortal Kombat, Call of Duty: Black Ops)

- Violent video games can desensitize players to violence (Bushman & Anderson, 2011).

- Englehardt found that the level of increased aggression when playing a violent game may depend on personality. (Engelhardt, Bartholow, & Saults, 2011).

- Men also have a greater increase in aggression than females (Bartholow & Anderson, 2001)

Benefits of Video Games

- Video games may develop eye hand coordination and visual spatial attention.

- Many players report that video games help decrease stress. - Mood Management Theory (Zillman)

- Media users strive for pleasure by changing environmental stimuli - People who suffer high levels of stress show a higher tendency to use games to recover from stress (Reinecke, 2009).

Reasons Why Video Games Reduce StressTheory of Flow

- An experiential state that happens when a person is experiencing optimal engagement with an activity or task (Payne, Jackson, Stine-Morrow & Noh, 2011)

- Become unaware of environment

- Males experience flow more than females (Inal & Cagiltay, 2007).

Narrative

- No research about how presence of narrative in video games may affect flow

- Could affect flow because narrative is made to make player feel present in game (Inal & Cagiltay, 2007).

AcknowledgmentsThis research was made possible by the Penn State Behrend Undergraduate Research Grant.

We would like to acknowledge a special thank you to Dr. Dawn Blasko for advising this research project. We would also like to thank Ms. Holly Blasko Drabik for providing consultation on the design and for the use of her measure.

Research Questions

1) Can playing video games reduce induced stress?

2) Are violent video games better at reducing stress?

3) Does the presence of a narrative in a video game help decrease stress and is this more prominent in violent games?

4) What are the influences of narrative and violence on the experience of flow?

4

7

3

1

11

10

4

Violence No Violence1

2

3

4

5

6

Narrative No Narrative

Mean

Flo

w L

evels

Mood Survey 1

Stress Task (PASAT)

Mood Survey 2

Play Video Game for 20 minutes

Guilty Party (Narrative; No Narrative)

Call of Duty(Narrative; No Narrative)

Mood Survey 3Serious Games MeasureVideo Game Experience

Questionnaire

Flow LevelsStress X Gender

Stress Time X Narrative X Violence

Video Games Usage

- 70% of children (ages 2-18) have at least 1 video game console in home

- 33% of children have video game consoles on their bedrooms (Thompson & Haninger, 2001)

- Currently 97% of adolescents (ages 12-17) play computer, web, or console video games

- 31% of adolescents currently playing video games play on a daily basis

- 21% play 3 – 5 days a week (Lenhart, Kahne, Middaugh, Macgill, Evans & Vitak, 2008)

Before Stress Task After Stress Task After Playing 1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

Females Males

Str

ess M

ean

s

Narra

tive/

Viole

nt

Narra

tive/

Nonviol

ent

No Nar

rativ

e/Vio

lent

No na

rrat

ive/

Nonviol

ent

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Males

After Stress TaskAfter playing

Game Type

Str

ess M

ean

s

Narra

tive/

Violent

Narra

tive/

Nonviolen

t

No Nar

rativ

e/Vio

lent

No Nar

rativ

e/Non

violen

t1

1.52

2.53

3.54

4.5

Females

After Stress TaskAfter Playing

GameType

Str

ess M

ean

s

There was a main effect of the time, F (1,46)= 19.08, p <.001. As expected , stress increased after the PASAT. Females reported more stress overall, F (1,46)= 12.44, p = .001. There was no interaction between stress and gender, F (1,46)= 2.69, p = .108.

The was a main effect of stress reduction, but no significant 3 way interaction between narrative, violence and stress reduction, F (1,21)= 1.28, p = .27, for males.

For females the amount of stress was reduced after playing the game, but the amount of reduction did not change based on narrative or violence of the game., F (1,19)= 0.54, p = .82

For ratings of flow, the interaction between violence and narrative did not reach statistical significance, F (1,50)= 2.86, p = .09.For the nonviolent condition flow was slightly higher in the no narrative condition whereas in the violent condition the narrative showed somewhat more flow.

Table 1ANOVA Table for Analysis of Moods and Video Games   df F p ᵑ2

Stress Main effect Stress Measure 1,40 33.45 <.001 0.46Main effect Gender 1,40 9.09 0.004 0.19Stress Measure x Gender t 1,40 3.43 0.071 0.08

Happiness Main effect Happiness Measure 1,40 5.69 0.022 0.13Main Effect Gender 1,40 7.96 0.007 0.17Happiness Measure x Gender 1,40 4.79 0.035 0.11Happiness Measure x Violence x Gender t 1,40 3.79 0.059 0.09

Frustration Main Effect Frustration Measure 1,40 17.89 <.001 0.31Frustration Measure x Violence 1,40 11.11 0.002 0.22

Anger Main Effect Anger Measure 1,39 6.73 0.013 0.15Main Effect Gender 1,39 4.64 0.037 0.11Anger Measure x Violence 1,39 7.87 0.008 0.17

Flow Main Effect Violence 1,50 5.54 0.013 0.12Main effect Gender t 1,50 3.01 0.09 0.07Violence x Gender t 1,50 3.96 0.053 0.09Violence x Narrative t 1,50 2.86 0.098 0.06

Game Structure Main Effect Violence 1,50 18.49 <.001 0.31

Personal Challenge Violence x Gender 1,50 6.48 0.015 0.13

Note. Significant at p < 0.05. Those with asterisks (*) are approaching significance.