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Negative Effects of Video Game Play

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Handbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies

Abstract

Video game play has become a ubiquitous form of entertainment in modern society. As a result, interest has accrued from parents, educators, policy makers, and scientists alike regarding the potential effects of this relatively new media. The current chapter has several goals. The first is to describe the research findings regarding the most heavily studied topic in video game research: the effects of violent video game content on aggressive affect, cognition, and behavior. The second goal is to describe the psychological processes that give rise to aggressive (and nonaggressive) negative outcomes of video game play. These psychological processes are described by the General Aggression Model (GAM) and the domain-specific theories which GAM incorporates. These “smaller” theories include (but are not limited to) script theory, attribution and decision-making, cognitive neoassociation theory, learning theories, and desensitization. Several other negative outcomes of video game play are also described which include risk taking, attention problems, impulsivity, reduced helping, stereotyping, and video game addiction. Some discussion focuses on specific types of game content (e.g., game mechanics and themes) to the outcomes observed among game players. Lastly, special attention is paid to explaining that the processes that give rise to negative effects are often the same processes that give rise to positive effects and that the notion that games should be considered either “good” or “bad” is much too simplistic. It is our hope that this chapter serves to provide a clear understanding of the negative effects of video game play but also underscores that games also have tremendous potential for positive outcomes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Study of Violence, Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, W112 Lagomarcino Hall, Ames, IA, 50011-3180, USA

    Christopher L. Groves & Craig A. Anderson

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  1. Christopher L. Groves
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  2. Craig A. Anderson
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Correspondence to Christopher L. Groves .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Design School, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

    Ryohei Nakatsu

  2. Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

    Matthias Rauterberg

  3. Dipto. Scienze dell'Informazione, Università di Bologna , Bologna, Italy

    Paolo Ciancarini

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Groves, C.L., Anderson, C.A. (2017). Negative Effects of Video Game Play. In: Nakatsu, R., Rauterberg, M., Ciancarini, P. (eds) Handbook of Digital Games and Entertainment Technologies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-50-4_13

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