The effects of videogame playing, watching, and realism on a person???s level of aggression

Includes bibliographical references (pages 30-32)Previous studies have investigated the effects of playing violent videogames on aggression by having participants play either non-violent games or extremely violent games and then attaining a measure of aggression. Some research has concluded that a strong association exists between playing violent games and aggression (e.g. Anderson et al., 2010). Other research has indicated that realism plays some mediating role in the relationship between playing violent videogames and aggression (Farrar, Krcmar, Mcgloin, 2011). However, despite the tendency for researchers to claim that exposure to violent videogames makes people more aggressive, there is a tendency amongst researchers in this domain to dismiss the use of pretest/posttest paradigms. Also, research has yet to be conducted on what possible effects watching violent videogame play can have on a person???s level of aggression. This experiment used a pretest/posttest paradigm to test if playing or watching amoderately violent videogame could make someone more aggressive and whether the level of realism of the game would have an effect on aggression as well. Results did not show anysignificant change in participants??? level of aggression as a result of either watching or playing a moderately violent videogame, or as a result of how realistic the videogame looked. Results indicate that exposure to violent videogames may not directly impact a person???s level of aggression. However a significant order effect found in the experiment may imply that a pretest/posttest paradigm may not be reliable in the field of aggression research