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http://dx.doi.org/10.14695/KJSOS.2020.23.4.41

The Effects of Video Games on Aggression, Sociality, and Affect: A Meta-analytic Study  

Lee, Eun-Ha (고려대학교 지혜과학연구센터)
Kang, Jinwon (고려대학교 심리학과)
Kim, Jeahong (고려대학교 심리학과)
Ahn, Joohee (고려대학교 심리학과)
Kang, Kathleen Gwi-Young (고려대학교 심리학과)
Kim, Joonwoo (고려대학교 심리학과)
Lee, Solbin (고려대학교 심리학과)
Jo, Seonghak (고려대학교 심리학과)
Nam, Kichun (고려대학교 심리학과)
Publication Information
Science of Emotion and Sensibility / v.23, no.4, 2020 , pp. 41-60 More about this Journal
Abstract
In this study, we examined the effects of video game play on a variety of areas of mental well-being, such as aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, prosocial behavior, prosocial attitude, antisocial behavior, antisocial attitude, positive affect, and negative affect. We conducted a multivariate meta-analysis on 22 studies (k= 54, N = 8,031) published between January 2008 and October 2019. The results of the meta-analysis indicate that exposure to violent video games significantly increased aggressive cognition and negative affect only in true experimental studies, but their influences were small. Furthermore, the exposure to violent video games did not increase aggressive behavior and negative affect across all the research designs (true experimental, quasi-experimental, and correlational). Moderator analyses revealed that the effects of exposure to violent video games were much larger for younger adults than for children and greater in male-biased studies than in gender-balanced ones. Additionally, studies using better methodologies were less likely to produce negative effects. These findings suggest that the effects of exposure to violent video games on aggression were not as severe as popular opinion holds, and the effects were heavily modulated by the age and gender ratio of the participants, and methodological quality of the studies.
Keywords
Meta-Analysis; Video Games; Aggression; Sociality; Affect; Aggressive Behavior; Aggressive Cognition; Prosocial Behavior; Prosocial Attitude; Antisocial Behavior; Antisocial Attitude; Positive Affect; Negative Affect;
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