Empathy and Violent Video Games: Aggression and Prosocial Behavior

87 Pages·2014·0.74 MB·English

by  Christian Happ

Empathy and Violent Video Games
DOI: 10.1057/9781137440136.0001
Palgrave Studies in Cyberpsychology
Series Editor: Jens Binder, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Titles include
John Waterworth and Giuseppe Riva
FEELING PRESENT IN THE PHYSICAL WORLD AND COMPUTER-MEDIATED
ENVIRONMENTS
Christian Happ and André Melzer
EMPATHY AND VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES
Forthcoming
Sandy Schumann
HOW THE INTERNET SHAPES COLLECTIVE ACTIONS
DOI: 10.1057/9781137440136.0001
Empathy and Violent
Video Games:
Aggression and
Prosocial Behavior
Christian Happ
University of Trier, Germany
and
André Melzer
University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg
DOI: 10.1057/9781137440136.0001
© Christian Happ and André Melzer 2014
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-44012-9
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may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2014 by
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ISBN: 978–1–137–44013–6 PDF
ISBN: 978-1-349-49441-5
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doi: 10.1057/9781137440136
Contents
List of Figures vi
Foreword: Why This Project? vii
 Of Empathy and Media Content: Bringing
Together Two Important Areas of Research 
. Empathy: a multifaceted concept 
. Media use and media effects 
 The E in Media is for Empathy 
. Empathy and violent media content 
. Empathy in video games: an overview 
. An empirical look at the effects of
empathy in video games 
 What Empathy Does to the Video Gamer 
. The consequences of empathizing
with the ‘wrong’ game character 
. Explaining the complex effects of
empathy 
 ‘Dear Researcher, Gamers, Parents, and
Teachers ...’ 
. What did we find? 
. Concluding remarks 
References 
Index 
DOI: 10.1057/9781137440136.0001 v
List of Figures
2.1 Number of stolen items (antisocial behavior)
in the violent and the prosocial video game
condition. Error bars indicate ±2 standard
error of the mean 22
2.2 P ercentage of returned questionnaires
(prosocial behavior) as a function of text and
game type 24
2.3 Aggressive behavioral intentions
(min=1, max=4) as a function of video clip
and game character. Error bars indicate
±2 standard error of the mean 28
2.4 Percentage of donations (prosocial behavior)
as a function of video clip and game
character 28
3.1 Prosocial behavior (picked up lost letter)
for participants who had played the Joker or
Superman (in per cent) 36
3.2 Hostile perception bias for participants
playing the Joker or Superman as a function of
having read the empathy or the neutral text.
Error bars indicate ±2 standard error of
the mean 37
4.1 The four propositions of the differential
susceptibility to media effects model 48
vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137440136.0002
Foreword: Why This Project?
Video games are now strongly related to the everyday
life of many people; they are pervasive, ubiquitous, and
no longer entertainment ‘just for kids.’ At the same time,
a general decrease in altruism, empathy, and charity are
recurrently discussed, as is the case with the increase in
selfishness in our society. Interestingly, the high rates
of violence in video games and its increasingly realistic
portrayal have been suggested as significant factors that
further contribute to these societal tendencies. The great
body of studies on the negative effects of exposure to
violent video games seems to substantiate these concerns.
The present project scrutinizes the role of empathy in this
context: Will it matter if the player takes the perspective
of a video game character and understands the character’s
feelings and, if so, how does this affect the player’s feelings,
thoughts, and behavior?
Although empathy is a well-researched concept in the
psychology of interpersonal relations, its role in media
consumption and media effects has been largely over-
looked. Only recently, empathy has been suggested as a
potential moderating factor in understanding the effects
of violent video game exposure (for example, Bartholow,
Sestir, & Davis, 2005). Most other publications cover
the state of the art regarding media effects, but do not
extend their perspective towards other, untested factors
in video game research (for example, Anderson, Gentile,
& Buckley, 2007; Calvert & Wilson, 2010; Kirsh, 2012).
While again, other books and journal articles focus on
empathy research (Batson, 2009; Davis, 2004; Hoffman,
DOI: 10.1057/9781137440136.0003 vii
viii Foreword: Why This Project?
2000; Nathanson, 2003), no research has yet systematically investigated
the function and effects of empathy in the field of media effects research.
It is the aim of the present project to close this gap in the literature and
provide a concise and profound analysis of the role of empathy in violent
video games.
Based on in-depth analyses of the literature we present three empirical
studies that explore the mechanisms behind the potentially moderating
functions of empathy. We show that inducing empathy before playing a
violent video game affects emotion and cognition, but also prosocial and
aggressive behavior. However, our results also indicate that the effects of
playing violent video games do not solely depend on the game content
(that is, violent versus non-violent), but also on the character played
(for example, hero vs. villain), as well as the players’ interpretations of
the role of the character (for example, perpetrator vs. victim). Thus, the
present project reveals new insights into empathy-based responses to
violent media content. We argue that the distinctiveness of empathy-
based reactions in the media context (both as state and trait empathy) is
an important factor in various research fields of media psychology (for
example, media effects, cyberbullying and media competences).
DOI: 10.1057/9781137440136.0003
1
Of Empathy and Media
Content: Bringing
Together Two Important
Areas of Research
Abstract: Happ and Melzer introduce the two major
components of their research. Following the detailed
description of the multifaceted construct of empathy, the
chapter contains an overview on findings from current
research on media effects with a particular emphasis on
video games. Numerous studies document the negative
effects of violent media on many variables explained by
different theoretical models. In addition to violent media
content, however, other risk and resilience factors (e.g.,
moral issues) are also likely to moderate the effects of
violent video games. The authors present empathy as a
potential moderator for behavior in social situations. The
chapter ends with a critical evaluation of current findings,
stressing the importance of analyzing empathy and its role
for the effects of media content.
Keywords: empathy; media effects; theoretical models
Happ, Christian and André Melzer. Empathy and
Violent Video Games: Aggression and Prosocial Behavior.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
doi: 10.1057/9781137440136.0004.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137440136.0004 