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Affect of the Game Player

Short-Term Effects of Highly and Mildly Aggressive Video Games

Rice University

Catherine M. Ford

Rice University

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of playing different types of video games on players' short-term affective states. In the first experiment, college student subjects played 11 different video games and rated them on a number of characteristics. From these ratings, two games were selected for use in Experiment 2. These games differed only in the level of aggression displayed. One was highly aggressive; the other was only mildly aggressive. In Experiment 2, each subject played one of the games or was assigned to a no-game control condition. Hostility, anxiety, and depression subsequently were assessed by the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist. Hostility was increased in both game conditions, relative to the control group. The high-aggression game led to higher hostility than the mild-aggression game, but the difference was not significant. However, those who had played the high-aggression game were significantly more anxious than either those who played the mild-aggression game or those who played no game (control). As expected, the experimental manipulation of game playing did not yield a main effect on depressive affect. Finally, there was a marginally significant sex by game interaction effect on the depression scores.

Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 12, No. 4, 390-402 (1986)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167286124002


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