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Consuming Entertainment Media: How Media Effects Can Vary by Users’ Controllability

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Abstract

Previous communication studies have focused on how media content influences human aggression. Few studies, however, have been conducted regarding the influence of situational variables on human aggression. Regarding online gaming, the present study examines how game users’ aggression is influenced by two idiosyncratic situational variables: “degree of control” (playing vs. watching) and “degree of interaction” (alone vs. together). The feeling of presence is also examined as a mediator to explicate the mechanism through which these situational variables influence the game users’ levels of aggression. The results demonstrate that degree of control significantly affects users’ aggression. Aggression is increased when players actively participate in the game versus simply watching; situational factors that are associated with the way people engage in interactive media cause short-term shifts in players’ aggression. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Here, the watching game condition is manipulated by having people passively watch a computer game being played by others while the playing game condition is manipulated by having the respondents actively play the computer game. These manipulations aim to demonstrate any effects derived from controllability – the player is almost certainly more actively involved than the observer; however, this does not mean that games are more harmful than television.

  2. Previous researchers have generally employed two different types of games, one violent game and one non-violent game, for their experimental designs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 119 Gregory Hall, 810 S. Wright Street, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Gunwoo Yoon

  2. Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Chang-Dae Ham

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  1. Gunwoo Yoon
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  2. Chang-Dae Ham
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Correspondence to Gunwoo Yoon.

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Yoon, G., Ham, CD. Consuming Entertainment Media: How Media Effects Can Vary by Users’ Controllability. Curr Psychol 35, 397–402 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9306-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9306-1

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