The effects of prosocial video games on prosocial behaviors: International evidence from correlational, longitudinal, and experimental studies

Although dozens of studies have documented a relation-ship between violent video games and aggressive behav-iors, very little attention has been paid to potential effects of prosocial games. Theoretically, games in which game characters help and support each other in nonvio-lent ways should increase both short-term and long-term prosocial behaviors. We report three studies conducted in three countries with three age groups to test this hypothesis. In the correlational study, Singaporean middle-school students who played more prosocial games behaved more prosocially. In the two longitudinal sam-ples of Japanese children and adolescents, prosocial game play predicted later increases in prosocial behav-ior. In the experimental study, U.S. undergraduates randomly assigned to play prosocial games behaved more prosocially toward another student. These similar results across different methodologies, ages, and cul-tures provide robust evidence of a prosocial game con-tent effect, and they provide support for the General Learning Model