Psychology

ii I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. iii The hours many of us spend watching movies and television, playing video games, and reading books illustrate the prevalence of fantasy in our lives. But does spending so much time in fantasy worlds shape our real-world thoughts and behaviour and, if so, how? The present research tests the idea that the extent to which people become immersed into a fantasy activity – projecting themselves into the fantasy and experiencing it as if it were real – or distances themselves from a fantasy experience- reflecting on the fantasy from an outsider’s perspective- determines whether the experience influences their subsequent thoughts and behaviour. I begin with an overview of several lines of research, including the broader literature on the psychology of fantasy, theory and research on self-immersion and self-distancing processes, and research on the effects of playing violent video games on real-world aggression. Buildin