The Effects of Homophily, Identification, and Violent Video Games on Players

Abstract

After an experiment with 148 male participants, results indicated that skinning a video game character to physically resemble the player led to greater identification and psychological involvement with the game's character but did little to impact the feeling of presence. Exposure to violent content also led to greater physical hostility than exposure to nonviolent content. An interaction effect revealed playing a violent game with a character physically resembling the player led to even greater hostility.

Notes

¹These two measures consisted of 7-point Likert scales ranging from no violent content to very violent content and no violent graphics to very violent graphics.

²The perceived homophily scale consists of four 7-point Likert scales with statements such as looks same as me, same size as me, resembles me, and appearance like mine.

Note. All correlations significant at the .01 level (two-tailed) except for that between 2 and 7 at the .05 level.

^a n = 142.

Note. STAXI = State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory–2 (Spielberger, 1999); APH = Avatar Physical Homophily.

Note. APH = Avatar Physical Homophily.

³For a more detailed description of the General Aggression Model, please see C. A. Anderson and Bushman (2002).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kevin D. Williams

Kevin D. Williams (Ph.D., University of Georgia, 2005) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at Mississippi State University. His research interests include the effects of media on aggression, media psychology (with an emphasis on video games), and the social importance of superhero characters in mass media.