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Can Video Games Promote Good Behaviour?

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Does Playing Video Games Make Players More Violent?

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Abstract

Switching the focus from the effects that video games might have on antisocial behaviour, this chapter examines evidence for prosocial effects. Studies using surveys and experiments have produced evidence that video games with prosocial themes can trigger prosocial effects. Video games with antisocial themes can weaken or diminish these effects. Important questions are raised about whether prosocial and antisocial themes can counteract each other across video games, or even when they are both featured in the same games. More evidence is needed on this point, but early signs suggest that these different effects might cancel each other out.

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  1. Media and Communication, University of Leicester, Loughton, Essex, UK

    Barrie Gunter

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  1. Barrie Gunter
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Gunter, B. (2016). Can Video Games Promote Good Behaviour?. In: Does Playing Video Games Make Players More Violent?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57985-0_7

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