The Sociological Impact of Violent Video Games and Aggression

This essay examines the relationship between violent video games and aggressive behavior from a sociological perspective. It explores the General Aggression Model (GAM) and theories like priming and desensitization to explain how exposure to violent video games can increase aggression. The discussion covers various factors, including the amount of time spent playing, the type of game, personality, and history of aggressive behavior. The essay references studies on the cognitive and physiological effects of violent content, self-determination theory, and the impact on prosocial behavior, trust, and cooperation. The conclusion highlights the GAM's focus on mechanisms like priming and dehumanization and the implications of video games on behavioral patterns.

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Abstract
Aggressive video games present a range of unconstructive and violent threats to its users. Earlier
research exploring the impact of violent video games has continually established a connection
with increased aggression and violence. It is important to note that the General Aggression
Model has included several diverse theories of aggression into a unified model which further
proposes routes such as priming and desensitization through which indulgence to aggressive
video games show critical implication of increasing aggressive behavioral patterns. The essay
has offered inclusive insights of the way substantial indulgence into video games leads to
aggression in individuals.

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Introduction
In Western societies, video games have developed into a ubiquitous type of
entertainment, amusement and education for individuals across an extensive age span. Video
game addiction is identified as the extreme as well as compulsive use of video games in a way to
cause social and emotional issues further than the regulation of the user (Greitemeyer, 2018).
Several scholars have aimed to investigate the association between aggression from brutal and
harmful computer games. Kühn et al. (2018) have observed critical association between media
channels and the effect on behavior for over a century. Studies have evolved from a focus on
television in the 1950’s to video games in the 2000’s. The following essay aims to shed light on
the relationship between video games as well as aggressive social behavior.
Discussion
Current studies intend to seek association between video games and impact on
individuals’ social behavior. In dealing with this issue, a number of factors are considered which
includes amount of time spent in playing video games, the kind of game whether violent or non-
violent in addition to individuals’ personality as well as history of aggressive behavior (Lobel et
al., 2017). Comprehensive studies related to the association between video games and destructive
actions are comparatively recently and thus have not attained an existing conformity on their
effect. It has been universally established that video games tend to create a short-term raise in
levels of aggression in addition to extensive and enduring effects of video games. Kühn et al.
(2018) have mentioned that the study on video games has been receiving attention since 2000’s,
thus has become an additional room of the anxiety of aggressive behavior. Calvert et al. (2017)
developed the Generation Aggression Model (GAM) as an explicit justification for the role that

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content shown in video games tends to have on propensity of an individual towards hostile
behavior, judgments, feelings and thoughts.
Furthermore, it has been revealed that regardless of rewards or penalties or punishments
shown in video games, the violent or harmful content shown in video games has the tendency to
increase in a intimidating effect. Therefore, Gentile et al. (2016) have claimed that reward or
prize for violence in a video game tends to produce an elevated aggressive cognition as well as
behavior in an individual in comparison to video game that punishes violence. Moreover, Szycik
et al. (2017) have noted that an increase in physical aggression subsequent to the exposure to
sadistic video games further leads to direct as well as indirect rewards and also elevates level of
aggression in real-life situations. In Western culture, video games have emerged as an
omnipresent form of entertainment, amusement and education for individuals across an extensive
age span.
At this juncture, Velez et al. (2016) have noted that the old stereotype of a gamer as an
introverted young boy is no understood to be true. Reports of Sauer, Drummond and Nova
(2015) have revealed that the average age of an individual who self identifies as a gamer in the
United States is aged around 31 years, while in Europe around 50% of all video-gamers are aged
around 35 years or higher. Furthermore, reports have mentioned that those who indulge
themselves in video games play them often, with around 39% of the U.S. inhabitants aged 9
years as well as older engaged in video games for an average of 7.4 hours per week. At this point
of discussion, Lobel et al. (2017) have noted that the individuals with elevated prior exposure
towards video games tend to display higher aggressiveness in comparison to individuals with
reduced prior contact only in violent game settings. As the practicality, engagement along with
violent behavior depicted in the content of video games has been increasing on yearly bases in

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addition to most popular games each year have been constantly the most brutal and violent; wide
range of academia have been continuing to explore the implications and consequences of these
games on the individual and social behavior. At this juncture, Kühn et al. (2018) have shed light
on the cognitive models as well as physiological arousal within individuals due to the exposure
of violent content in video games. Additionally, according to Lobel et al. (2017), the Excitation
Transfer Theory (ETT) is primarily based on a two factor model of sentiment in which arousal as
well as cognitive assessment contributes to emotion. As per the studies of Greitemeyer (2018),
the ETT claims that the experience of feelings and sensation are based on the level of arousal and
the way that arousal has been cognitively assessed as well as attributed. Moreover, the level of
interdependence of arousal as well as cognition in emotional experience can further explicate
augmented aggression because of violent video game exposure by means of two routes. Velez et
al. (2016) have claimed that the increased arousal naturally caused by perceiving violence can be
misattributed to another experience in real life further causing the feeling to be cognitively
associated with the incorrect source.
On the contrary, research conducted by authors has shed light on association between
aggressive video game content and individual’s drive to play games through the self-
determination theory. As per studies of De Freitas (2018), the self-determination theory (SDT) is
primarily concerned with an individual’s psychological needs as well as the drive in showing
inclination towards the preferences which young individuals tend to make regardless of any
external interference. As per the SDT theory, studies linked to video games have explicitly
mentioned that aggressive and sadistic contents are likely to contribute to motivation for a typical
player such as focusing on level of competence as well as autonomy. De Freitas (2018) further

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have noted that fundamentally, individuals are likely to indulge into video games primarily
because of intrinsic motivation and the high level of excitement associated with the activity.
However, Sauer, Drummond and Nova (2015) have argued on the positive implications
of video games and further have explored the unconstructive effects of violent video games on
the level of trust and cooperation of players. Research conducted by authors has noted that
aggressive game exposure mainly develops hostile information processing which consequently
results to perception bias and increased aggression. Furthermore, Allen and Anderson (2017)
have noted that the linkage between personality disposition and situational cues show a tendency
to fluctuate an apprehensive outlook that involves superior hostile information processing in
addition to a decline in pro-social and cooperative behavioral patterns. Additionally, Bormann
and Greitemeyer (2015) have revealed that virtual aggression related to video game can decline
cooperative behavior of players while the video game is played but not observed. At this
juncture, research of Gentile et al. (2016) have claimed that players who have high engagement
into the sequence with highly aggressive non-player characters are likely to have less financial
investment in the social dilemma situations in comparison to the less aggressive NPC section
who primarily exhibit a significant lack of trust and expectations. Thus, authors have noted that
exposure to aggressive video games have critical unconstructive impacts on individuals’ pro-
social behavior related to trust and cooperation along with an increase in an aggressive
behavioral patterns. Moreover, Kühn et al. (2018) have noted that while media investigations
have revealed that aggressive games can augment hostile and destructive behavior, they do not
hold the similar degree of consequence on public guidelines as well as communal concerns as
real-life scenarios. According to Greitemeyer (2018) with the advent of personal computers
along with video game consoles as well as their consequent proliferation, substantial level of the

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media implication have shed light on the highly violent impact on video games. At this juncture,
Calvert et al. (2017) have found that young children tend to show greater degree of aggressive
after a violent game in comparison to young adults. Alongside, considering the explosion of
video games within modern culture, older vide-gamers have the propensity to have greater
prospects to familiarize in playing video games. Meanwhile, as per the view of Velez et al.
(2016), behavioral implications of aggression have lesser degree of sensitivity to the effects of
aggressive media exposure in comparison to self-report. As per studies of Szycik et al. (2017),
Social Learning Theory primarily predicts that replica of human characters in the video game
have the implication increases the level of violent behavior additional than modeling by
nonhuman typeset in the video game, while reports have suggested the contradictory with more
hostility exhibited subsequent to playing games with non human characters. Moreover Bormann
and Greitemeyer (2015) have found that destructive violence in video games have been critically
rising the level of aggressive and sadistic behavioral patterns at a greater degree in comparison to
sanctioned violence. Furthermore, Social Learning Theory further has predicted a constructive
and effective association between times spent in video games and levels of aggression and
further suggests significant negative connection between play time and hostile behavioral
patterns.
Conclusion
Hence to conclude, General Aggression Model (GAM) focuses on routes through which
aggressive video game play have the tendency to give rise to greater level of aggressive
behavioral patterns such as priming as well as dehumanization. It is important to note that video
games are competitive as well as have the ability to influence individuals’ behavioral patterns.
Alongside, the desensitization study has also suggested that extensive exposure towards

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aggressive video games thus causes the natural unconstructive response towards violence to
decline through process of habituation.

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References
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