Bastian 2011 Flashcards
Aim
To investigate if playing violent video games has dehumanising consequences in relation to others and the self. It is a study in self perception and others. Study 1 was to investigate the effects in a violent video game context where players were violent towards each other.
Procedure
Mortal combat and spin tennis
106 pps
Randomly assigned to either group (violent non violent)
Independent groups design
52 played mortal combat, 54 played spin tennis , they were separated by a wall so couldn’t contact each other and were instructed not to interact
Procedure
Ratings
Asked to rate how much they enjoyed the game and how frustrating they found the game 1-7 scale
Had to rate themselves and their opponents on 8 human nature items (1-7)
Asked to think about their experiences while playing
4 positive items “I felt like I was emotional, like I was warm and responsive”
4 reversed “I felt like I lacked self restraint, like an animal”
Sample
106 pps
Undergraduates
17-34
74 female
32 male
Results
It was found there was a significant difference between the two groups on rating of both self humanity and the other persons humanity in people who played the violent video game compared to the non violent video game
Mean score self humanity violent 3.74, compared to 4.35
There was higher frustration reported by players of the violent game (mean =5) compared to players at the non violent game (mean = 3.83)
Conclusion
People perceive themselves as less human when playing a violent game compared to competitive non violent game play.
Repeated exposure to dehumanising experiences could results in change in self perception and of others
Generalisability
More female makes study estrocentric
All of a higher level of education making it ungeneralisable to wider public
Aged 17-34 so can’t be generalised to older or younger people
Reliability
Two studies which presented similar finding shows study is repeatable
• The researches checked to see if participants had suspected a link between dehumanisation and violent video games so that it avoided any demanded characteristics affecting results
• Participants had to rate their levels of frustration which made sure that the test wasn’t measuring levels of frustration and still measuring dehumanisation
Application
• Contributes to further previous research in the area on dehumanisation and as people spend longer playing games online increases the likelihood and possibility of such experiences dehumanising a player
• Could suggest repeated exposure to such dehumanising experiences might results in radical changes in self perception and perception of others and so there should be limited use of violent video games
Validity
• Pps were also victims of game violence which could have caused them to decrease in self humanity
• Self rating scales could have caused a lack in validity as pps may have been inclined to rate themselves less human or more human given context being studied.
• It lacked ecological validity as it was done in artificial setting which may have effected responses and lead to demand characteristics
• Questioned participants to check if they had suspected a link between dehumanisation and playing violent video games
• The researchers tested for the effects of gender, mood, level of self-esteem, amount of enjoyment in the games, amount of frustration in the games and the excitement of playing the games. They found that none of these variables explained the differences in the means between the important variables - the main one being whether someone played a violent video game or a non-violent one.
By looking for effects from other variables, the researchers helped to make the link between their independent variable (the two types of video game) and the dependent variable (their own measure of their humanity).
Ethics
No ethical problems
None was lead to physical or psychological harm
