Article Review: Quantitative Research on Video Game Aggression

This report is a student's review of a quantitative research article that investigates the relationship between violent video games, stress, and aggression. The review begins with a summary of the research, which explores the connection between vicious video games and stress, measured through cardiac coherence. The research involved participants playing either violent or non-violent video games, with their cardiac coherence and aggressive behaviors being measured. The review then provides a critical analysis of the article, highlighting the strengths, such as the use of well-labeled graphs and consistency with prior research, and weaknesses, including potential gender bias and the limitation of measuring only one type of aggressive behavior. The reviewer agrees with the findings that violent video games can increase aggression and stress, potentially due to the stressful situations players encounter, and the possibility of players mimicking actions in the games. The review concludes that continuous engagement with vicious video games can trigger aggression and stress, leading to reduced cardiac coherence and increased aggressiveness. The student used the article to demonstrate critical thinking and academic writing skills.

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Introduction
The article is about a quantitative research that proves that vicious video games normally
stress the players and even make them more belligerent (Hasan, Bègue & Bushman, 2013 p.98).
In my paper, however, I intend to provide a brief summary of this research and also provide my
critique about the quantitative research article.
Summary of the research article
In the introduction of the research article, the author defines stress as a state which is
undesirable and is linked to the vicious video games as video gamers expose the players to
situations that are stressful. Vicious video games are also linked to the increase in physiological
arousal like skin conductance, heart rate, and blood pressure. In this article, cardiac coherence is
defined as the bringing together of the breathing rhythm and the heart rate rhythm and is this can
be used to measure the balance in the autonomic nervous system. The cardiac coherence
according to this research could be taken to be the state where the variability of the heart rate is
extremely regular. There is usually an occurrence of cardiac coherence and a fluctuation in the
variability of the heart rate when an individual experiences positive emotions. Negative emotions
normally cause a decrease in cardiac coherence and an increase in heart rate fluctuations.
Cardiac coherence is used to study the effects of video games because it is related directly to
stress (Hasan et al., 2013 p.100). It is also less invasive compared to other physiological changes.
It is also preferred for it is stable against environmental disturbances. Its measuring equipment
are cheaper and its method of measurement is also very easy. Lastly, it is preferred as it is not
subject to characteristics of demand.

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The method involved 77 participants who were allowed to play a non-vicious or a vicious
video game and measures of their cardiac coherence were taken. Another method involved
allowing the winner to blast the loser with strident noise via the headphones and the noise
intensity and duration was measured. The results revealed that vicious video games caused a
decrease in cardiac coherence and also an increase in aggression.
Critique of the article
The article provides comprehensive results through the use of graphs which are well
labeled. The graphs are directly related to the predictions of the researcher showing that there is
a decrease in the cardiac coherence for individuals who play vicious video games. There results
for the intensity and duration of noise were also consistent to the predictions of the researchers
and this made the researchers conclude that the participants involved in playing vicious video
games were more aggressive than those who were playing the non-vicious video games. The
result of the research was found to be almost the same as the result of previous researches that
showed the same correlation of vicious video games and aggressiveness (Hasan et al., 2013
p.101). The results obtained about the intensity and duration of noise made by the winners of the
video games which were vicious were also found to be very consistent to earlier findings that
vicious video gamers made more noise for a very long time than individuals who played non-
vicious video games. I agree with the findings of this research. Video games that are violent
expose participants to very inhuman situations. For example, a video game like the Call of Duty
involves shooting and a lot of fighting and in most cases, the main aim of a video game player is
to complete all the missions successfully and unharmed. These situations usually tend to cause
stress on an individual. A participant usually aims at winning against the opponent in any game

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that they are playing either a violent or a non-vicious video game. This might cause a trigger in
the aggressiveness of the participants as winning would at most times involve killing the
character of the opponent player. I also agree with these findings as there is a possibility of the
video gamers trying to imitate the actions of the characters of the video games in real life
situations. This could lead to causing aggression in the participant as the character of vicious
video games are programmed to act fiercely and in most cases, actions of kindness are rarely
demonstrated by them. I also agree with these findings as it is normally proved that continuous
involvement of vicious video games makes a participant become more and more aggressive and
these effects were common among the teens and the children who were still growing and
developing. I also agree with the findings because they show that stress levels of participants
who play non-vicious video games are lower as the games do not expose them situations like
killing of the opponent. The participants would therefore not acquire vicious features even if they
try to mimic the actions in the game.
These results, though were consistent with the results of other researchers, were not as
accurate as others as they only measured one aggressive behavior type and ignoring other types
of behaviors of aggression. This is because aggression due to the type of video games varies
from one type to another and there was a chance that stress could not be shown by some
individuals who played vicious games. The research done here could also be susceptible to
biasness as the sex of the participants was not balanced. There were more female participants.
This made it very difficult for them to test for the results due to the gender differences as there
was no balance in gender. The research also assumed other changes in the physiology like the
blood pressure, heart rate and the conductance of the skin as this would aid in providing more

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accurate results. The involvement of these physiological changes would show a direct
relationship between the stress and aggression faced by a participant involved in playing video
games making it difficult for the researcher to miss any signs of aggression (Hasan et al., 2013
p.102).
Conclusion
Aggression and stress could be triggered and even encouraged by continuously playing
vicious video games. This is because the players are involved in violent situations making them
think that they are in danger (Hasan et al., 2013 p.103). This would lead to a reduction in the
cardiac coherence thereby increasing the aggressiveness of the participants as shown by the
research article.

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References
Hasan, Y., Bègue, L. and Bushman, B.J., 2013. Violent video games stress people out and make
them more aggressive. Aggressive behavior, 39(1), pp.64-70.