Aversive images cause less perceptual interference among violent video game players: evidence from emotion-induced blindness

ABSTRACT

Previous research has assessed links between violent video game playing, aggression, and desensitization in the moral domain, but here we find that frequent violent video game play additionally may be linked with differences in perceptual processing. In an emotion-induced blindness task – wherein graphic images typically outcompete and impair perception of targets – violent video game players suffered less perceptual disruption following aversive images than non-players did, despite no group difference following neutral images. This difference persisted when controlling for sex and other violent media consumption and despite no group differences in trait aggression, disgust propensity, or disgust sensitivity. Importantly, the recruitment method ensured that participants were not aware of links between the experiment and their videogame playing history. Although a causal relationship has yet to be established, the findings suggest that violent video game players might sometimes, literally see the world differently.

KEYWORDS:

• Attention
• emotion
• video games
• violent media: emotion-induced blindness

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Australian Research Council grant FT120100707 to SBM and was conducted as part of an honours thesis by MJ. Thanks to Wayne Warburton and Dan Simons for helpful discussion and feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Australian Research Council [grant number FT120100707] to SBM.