Virtual Reality Games and Aggression: Exploring the Evidence

As the world of technology develops and becomes more affordable, we have more ways to experience and enjoy video games. This is especially true of virtual reality gaming, which in the last decade has gone from an expensive commodity to a widely available product that can improve physical and mental health.

But with new ways of gaming comes new concerns for how gaming can influence us. In media interviews, I have been asked to weigh in on the topic of virtual reality games and violence. There seems to be a lot of evidence that video games don’t contribute to aggressive behaviour, including my own analysis which found that family holidays explain more aggressive behaviour than video games. But what about virtual reality games? Do even greater levels of immersion when playing games influence behaviour in a negative way?

I’ve unfortunately had to ask these interviewers to patiently wait for more evidence; if you are speaking to me, I am going to give you an evidence-based answer. But now the time has come to review the evidence as a study was recently published exploring the relationship between virtual reality (VR) games and aggression. So let’s get right into it.

As usual, there will be a summary at the bottom if you do not wish to read everything. Now, let’s begin!

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Methods
3. Results: Study 1
4. Results: Study 2
5. Discussion
6. Summary
7. Credits
8. References

Introduction

The introduction does a good job of setting the scene and explaining why this piece of research is so important. The authors don’t shy away from the fact that research on video games and violence has been done to death, citing meta-analyses finding that around 1% of aggressive behaviour can be explained by video games (Hilgard et al., 2017; Mathur & VanderWeele, 2019; Prescott et al., 2018). However, they acknowledge that VR technology has incredible immersive potential, such as its use in treating phobias (Martens et al., 2019).

But can immersing our eyes, ears and body fully in violent digital worlds change our thoughts and behaviours for the worse? That’s what this study aims to explore, so let’s see how they did it.

Methods

The interesting thing about this study is that it is actually two studies in one. The studies share almost exactly the same methodology, they just use different samples of participants and make one small change. At the time of Study 1, there was no violent video game the researchers could use that had a VR and non-VR equivalent. This was a concern because what if the VR game was more violent than the non-VR game or vice versa? While they tried to control for this as much as possible, ultimately they just needed time. After Study 1 was conducted, Doom VFR released which is similar to the 2016 title Doom. They decided to conduct another study with a fresh batch of participants using Doom VFR and Doom 2016, so I applaud them for their diligence.

Study 1 used a sample of 200 participants (67% male) recruited from a New Zealand university. According to the study’s pre-registered protocol, they were financially limited to 200 participants as each participant received a $10 gift card. Study 2 used a sample of 96 participants (51% male); they aimed for 100, but had to stop data collection due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: playing a violent or non-violent VR game for 15 minutes with the HTC Vive, or playing a violent or non-violent non-VR game for 15 minutes. The violent games were wave-based first-person zombie shooting games in Study 1, then Doom VFR and Doom 2016 for Study 2. The researchers used Portal and Portal Stories for their VR and non-VR non-violent games respectively. You may wonder why they bothered to examine violent non-VR games in a VR study, but it’s understandable in the context of the discussion. If people are asking “Are violent VR games more likely than traditional games to make you aggressive?”, it makes sense to also look at non-VR games for the sake of comparison.

Now we get to how aggression was measured. In the two studies, ‘aggression’ was divided into aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviour. Aggressive thoughts were measured using a word completion task used in other video game aggression studies (Carnagey & Anderson, 2005). 46 words contained blanked-out letters and participants were asked to complete them. For example, if explo** were completed as ‘explode’ rather than something like ‘explore’, this would be recorded as an aggressive answer. Aggressive behaviour was measured using a variation of a video game research staple – the wasabi test. The wasabi test, a variation of the famous hot sauce test, involves telling participants that many people dislike wasabi and then showing a video of someone reacting with disgust to eating wasabi. Following this, they are then asked to measure out a portion of wasabi to be eaten by someone completing a different experiment.

I know many people reading this are going to feel that this isn’t a valid measurement of aggressive behaviour, and you have an extremely valid point. But as a researcher (who is admittedly very critical of the hot sauce test), I feel obligated to explain why aggression gets measured in this way. Researchers are morally and ethically obligated not to do harm, so actively trying to cause or incite hurtful behaviour goes against our code. The wasabi/hot sauce test is far, far, far from perfect, but it is typically what researchers use in tightly-controlled experiments to simulate aggression rather than getting someone to punch a stranger.

While reading this study, I wondered how many people would have guessed the study’s aim as the hot sauce test is becoming more well-known. Thankfully the researchers thought of this and asked participants at the end what they thought the study was about. Those who guessed or suspected the study related to gaming and aggression were noted, and had their data removed during analyses to explore whether these people made a difference to the findings.

In terms of other measurement tools, they used the Positive and Negative Affect Scale X (PANAS-X; Watson & Clark, 1999) to gauge experiences such as excitement and fear while playing, and used an anxiety questionnaire to remove anyone who may be negatively affected by VR. As someone whose greatest hurdle for enjoying VR games was anxiety rather than motion sickness, I thank them for this consideration.

To analyse their data, the researchers used something called Bayesian ANOVAs. An ANOVA is an analysis of variance that explores how much of something can be explained by the variables you input (i.e. exploring how much aggression can be explained by gaming). As for the Bayesian component, this allowed researchers to constantly explore their data during data collection rather than waiting until all participants were finished. Bayesian analyses are also good at exploring the lack of a relationship rather than the presence of one; as video game violence research has its fair share of small and/or non-significant findings, this makes sense. All data are available to download online, which is very transparent and great to see!

Results: Study 1

To make the results as easy to follow as possible, I’m going to break them down into two main hypotheses:

1. Does playing violent games increase aggressive thoughts and behaviour?
2. Do violent VR games increase aggressive thoughts and behaviours more than violent non-VR games?

So let’s take a look at violent games as a whole. Analyses suggested that those who played violent games recalled more aggressive words than those who didn’t play violent games, but the number of aggressive words recalled wasn’t enough to establish a meaningful relationship. When it comes to aggressive behaviour, the data heavily indicated no relationship between playing violent games and measuring out more wasabi to cause harm; this remained true when those who were suspicious of the study had their data removed.

Now let’s look at the comparison between violent VR games and non-VR games. Interestingly, those who played violent VR games recalled fewer aggressive words than violent non-VR games. Although violent games and aggressive behaviour had no relationship in Study 1, there was an even smaller relationship for violent VR games than non-VR games.

I want to mention some extra analyses here as I think they’re interesting. No relationship was found between VR gaming and negative emotions such as irritability and hostility. However, playing a VR game made people feel more inspired and excited.

I feel this next additional analysis is quite an important one. Part of why violent video games can be such a scary thing to people is due to the General Aggression Model (GAM; Anderson & Carnagey, 2004). In the context of video games, the GAM argues that violent video games can make us think and feel more aggressively, thus making us more likely to act aggressively. With this in mind, the researchers conducted an analysis to see if there was a relationship between aggressive thoughts, negative emotions, and aggressive behaviour. They were unable to find any evidence to support the idea that aggressive thoughts were linked to aggressive behaviour or negative emotions after playing video games.

Results: Study 2

To reiterate, Study 2 follows Study 1’s protocol on a smaller sample of participants using Doom VFR and Doom 2016 rather than Study 1’s violent games.

This is going to be a very small section, because Study 2 found pretty much exactly the same as Study 1, including the lack of a relationship between aggressive thoughts and behaviour.

Discussion

This is the first study to explore the relationship between violent VR games, aggressive thoughts, and aggressive behaviours using commercially-available hardware and software. No relationship was found between playing violent games and deliberately causing harm to others, including when people who were suspicious about the aim of the study were removed. While people who played violent games recalled more aggressive words, the amount didn’t meet the threshold for a meaningful relationship, and those who played violent VR games recalled fewer aggressive words than violent non-VR games. Interestingly, there seemed to be no relationship found between aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviour, challenging the argument that being in a more ‘aggressive’ mindset after playing video games translates to aggressive behaviour.

This is an important study for those who fear that violent VR games are the new frontier for gaming-related aggression. Not only was a relationship between gaming and aggressive behaviour unable to be established, but relationships tended to be even weaker for violent VR games compared to violent non-VR games. This may be due to the novel nature of VR as we see it more as an exciting and stimulating way to move our bodies rather than a way to practice and/or learn violence. Bearing in mind that meta-analyses have found an association of around 1% for non-VR games and aggressive behaviour, the findings of this study suggest that this value could be even lower for VR games.

No study is perfect, so I’d like to end by quickly discussing the pros and cons of this study. The protocol for the study was pre-registered and the datasets from the studies are available to download online. The research team went out of their way to conduct a second study when they realised they could make the study even more reliable with the use of Doom VFR and Doom 2016, and they were able to replicate their original findings by doing this. This culminates in a highly transparent and rigorous study which strived to follow the scientific method.

Perhaps the biggest con people will point out is their inability to accept word completion and wasabi measuring tasks as simulations of aggressive thoughts and behaviours. It is a very fair point and is an unfortunate limitation of trying to conduct controlled experiments without wanting to cause anyone harm. There is also the question of whether playing a game for 15 minutes is enough time to be properly immersed or to produce any sort of effect. For example, Ferguson and Wang (2019) found that someone would need to play violent games for 27 hours per day (!) for them to have a noticeable effect on their behaviour. Finally, it would be nice to see this study replicated in different populations outside of a New Zealand university sample.

In conclusion, the study did not find a relationship between violent VR games and aggression, and violent VR games produced even smaller scores than violent non-VR games potentially due to their novelty. This is an important finding for those who fear that violent VR games may be more dangerous than non-VR games, but further research in the field is still required.

Summary

• In response to the development and growing availability of VR technology, a study was conducted exploring the effects of violent VR games on aggressive thoughts and behaviour.
• Two studies were conducted: one using similar first-person wave-based zombie shooting games (n=200, 67% male), and another using Doom VFR and Doom 2016 to maximise the similarity between violent VR and non-VR games (n=96, 51% male). Participants were randomly assigned to play violent games (VR or non-VR) or non-violent games (VR or non-VR). Aggressive thoughts were measured using a word completion task, such as explo** being completed as explode (aggressive) or explore (neutral). Aggressive behaviour was measured by informing participants that most people hate wasabi, showing a video of someone having a negative reaction to wasabi, and asking them to measure a portion of wasabi for someone in another experiment. Those who guessed or were suspicious of the aims of the study were noted and had their data removed in certain analyses.
• No relationship was found between playing violent games and aggressive behaviour. While people who played violent games recalled more aggressive words, the amount didn’t meet the threshold for a meaningful relationship, and those who played violent VR games recalled fewer aggressive words than violent non-VR games. No relationship was found between aggressive thoughts and aggressive behaviour, challenging the argument that being in a more ‘aggressive’ mindset after playing video games translates to aggressive behaviour.
• This is an important finding for those who fear that violent VR games may be more dangerous than non-VR games, but more research in the field is needed.

Credits

A big thank you to DECosmic for designing my header image and to LoopyGc for drawing the header art. A special thanks to Harshil Sharma for their work on this project.

This hard work would not be possible without the support of my wonderful Patrons. I would particularly like to thank my Platinum Patrons: Albert S Calderon, Kyle T, redKheld, Dimelo ‘Derp’ Waterson, Hagbard Celine, Aprou, Austin Enright, NotGac, Shaemus, Joey Rodriguez, Marcus Lo Re-Sant, DarrenIndeed, Thomas Meszaros, Dr. Jhin, Mulgar, Tobias Svensson, RK_Rammy, and John Bauman. Thank you!

 

References

Anderson, C. A., & Carnagey, N. L. (2004). Violent evil and the general aggression model. The Social Psychology of Good and Evil, 168–192.

Carnagey, N. L., & Anderson, C. A. (2005). The effects of reward and punishment in violent video games on aggressive affect, cognition, and behavior. Psychological Science, 16(11), 882–889.

Ferguson, C. J., & Wang, J. C. (2019). Aggressive video games are not a risk factor for future aggression in youth: A longitudinal study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(8), 1439-1451.

Hilgard, J., Engelhardt, C. R., & Rouder, J. N. (2017). Overstated evidence for short-term effects of violent games on affect and behavior: A reanalysis of Anderson et al. (2010).

Martens, M. A., Antley, A., Freeman, D., Slater, M., Harrison, P. J., & Tunbridge, E. M. (2019). It feels real: Physiological responses to a stressful virtual reality environment and its impact on working memory. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 33(10), 1264–1273.

Mathur, M. B., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2019). Finding common ground in meta-analysis “wars” on violent video games. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(4), 705–708.

Prescott, A. T., Sargent, J. D., & Hull, J. G. (2018). Metaanalysis of the relationship between violent video game play and physical aggression over time. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(40), 9882–9888.

Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1999). The PANAS-X: Manual for the positive and negative affect schedule-expanded form.