Bandura —attending to the behavior, enhanced recall through rehearsal, seeing
the behavior rewarded —are built into most violent video games.
Numerous studies on the effects of violent video games have now been
conducted. As with research on media violence, the findings consistently point
to the same conclusion —playing violent video games increases the likelihood
that the player will act aggressively (Anderson, 2004; Anderson & Bushman,
2001; Anderson, Carnagey, Flanagan, Benjamin, Eubanks, & Valentine, 2004).
Participants who play violent video games are more aggressive immediatelyafterward than participants who play nonviolent video games (Anderson &
Dill, 2000; Bartholow, Bushman, & Sestir, 2006).
Undergraduate men and women in one study played a car-driving video
game (Carnagey & Anderson, 2005). In one condition players were rewardedfor killing pedestrians and opponents. In a second condition players lost
points when they hit other cars or pedestrians. In a third condition all pedes-trians were removed from the screen and players earned points simply by
passing checkpoints. A little later, participants were given an opportunity to
hurt someone who had insulted them by administering what they thoughtwere blasts of loud noise to their insulter. As shown in Figure 14.7, partici-
pants who had been rewarded for video game violence gave louder and lon-
ger blasts of noise than participants who either had been punished for
violence or who played the nonviolent game.
This increased aggressiveness from playing violent video games typically lasts
for several minutes after people stop playing (Barlett, Branch, Rodeheffer, &Harris, 2009). Moreover, the more realistic the violence in the game, the
stronger the effect (Barlett & Rodeheffer, 2009). And, consistent with
Bandura’ s theory, the fact that players are actively engaged in the simulated
violence may make the games especially worrisome. Participants who play
violent video games act more aggressively afterward than participants who
simply watch someone else play (Polman, de Castro, & van Aken, 2008).
Aggression Score
Nonviolent Punishment Reward180
160
140120100
FIGURE 14.7 Aggression as a Function of Video Game Violence
Source: Adapted from Carnagey and Anderson (2005).394 CHAPTER 14 The Behavioral/Social Learning Approach