Abstract
Previous studies have focused on whether there is a relationship between violent content in video games and aggression, but less attention has been given to game context, despite the popularity of multiplayer games. Therefore, the current study investigated the short-term effects of competitive game context on aggression as well as the mediating role of frustration and the moderating role of gender. Seventy-six participants played either competitive or solo game play modes for 15 min and then completed a measure of frustration. Next, participants completed a lexical decision task to measure their aggressive cognitions, a competitive reaction time task and a hot sauce paradigm to measure their aggressive behaviors. The results showed that participants in the competitive game context responded significantly faster to aggressive words than nonaggressive words, set longer noise punishment, and selected more chili powder than in the solo game context. Frustration mediated the relationship between game context and aggressive behavior (hot sauce scores), while gender was insignificant as a moderator. These results suggest that the competitive game context can influence aggression. Furthermore, the frustration-aggression hypothesis was supported, which proposes that competition can lead to frustration and in turn to aggressive behavior.
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The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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We thank Junyi Hao for his input in the initial writing of the manuscript.
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This research was funded by the Chongqing Key Research Base Key Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (No.14SKB033) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University (SWU1909223).
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Conceptualization: Jiayi Sun, Yanling Liu; Methodology: Jiayi Sun, Yanling Liu; Formal analysis and investigation: Jiayi Sun; Writing - original draft preparation: Jiayi Sun, Xiaoli Du; Writing - review and editing: Jiayi Sun, Jinqian Liao, Xiaoli Du; Funding acquisition: Yanling Liu; Supervision: Yanling Liu.
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Sun, J., Liao, J., Du, X. et al. The effect of competitive context in nonviolent video games on aggression: The mediating role of frustration and the moderating role of gender. Curr Psychol 43, 11514–11525 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05223-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05223-7