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Original Articles

Models for Aggressive Behavior: The Attributes of Violent Characters in Popular Video Games

Pages 313-329 | Published online: 16 Aug 2006
 

Abstract

Americans are increasingly concerned about video games, presumably due to the amount and graphicness of violence they contain. Social Cognitive Theory suggests that people are more likely to imitate characters they see as attractive or similar to self. To date, however, little research has examined attributes of violent characters in video games related to this issue. This content analysis examined 10 minutes of play from 60 of the most popular video games. Adapting the coding scheme from the National Television Violence Study (Smith et al., Citation1998; Wilson et al., Citation1997, Citation1998), various demographic and contextual features of violent characters and violent interactions were assessed. The results show that violent game characters have attributes that are likely to increase the extent to which some players perceive them as attractive and similar. Moreover, these violent characters engage in aggression that is presented as justified or graphic.

Notes

[1] Additional post hoc analyses revealed differences across game system in some of the variables under consideration. Specifically, PlayStation games were more likely to feature perpetrators that were children, males, or liked, and less likely to feature Asian perpetrators. Nintendo 64 games were more likely to feature justified motives for aggression. DreamCast games were more likely to feature human perpetrators, while no differences for graphicness emerged across the three games systems. Due to space considerations, details of these analyses have been omitted from the current manuscript. These analyses are available by request from the first author.

[2] Sega DreamCast was introduced in the July of 1999. Thus, the top 20 games were derived from sales figures from September to December of 1999.

[3] For each game, the first 10 minutes was examined for violence. Towards this goal, each game was played by a research assistant with home gaming experience. Research assistants were recruited with similar levels of playing experience, and were not aware of the intended purpose of the study. As each game was being played, the audio and video signals were run through a V.C.R. and recorded on a standard V.H.S. tape.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kenneth A. Lachlan

Ken Lachlan (PhD, Michigan State University) is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Department at Boston College.

Stacy L. Smith

Stacy L. Smith (PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California.

Ron Tamborini

Ron Tamborini (PhD, Indiana University) is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the 87th annual meeting of the National Communication Association, Atlanta, GA, November 2, 2001.

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