Research Shows Positive Effects of Video Games

Violent video games often get blamed for real-world violence, but new research from the College of Media & Communication at Texas Tech suggests that playing video games cooperatively with others can lead to widespread benefits by making players think helpful behaviors are valuable and commonplace.

The results of one article suggest that playing cooperatively with others can eliminate the effects of violent video games on players' aggressive behaviors in the real world. Another related study demonstrated that playing cooperatively with a helpful teammate (in a non-violent video game) not only increases pro-social or helping behaviors towards teammates but opposing team members as well.

The two studies highlighted how the benefits of cooperative video game play are likely due to players expecting others to reciprocate positive behaviors (e.g., less aggression and more pro-socialness) or perceive that positive behaviors is ‘the right thing to do' even if they do not expect positive behaviors in return. 

Lead researcher Dr. John Velez, assistant professor of Journalism and Electronic Media at Texas Tech University, said “the complexities of social video game play are not considered enough when discussing the effects of video games, particularly violent video games.”

The results of one article suggest that playing cooperatively with others can eliminate the effects of violent video games on players' aggressive behaviors in the real world.

“People love playing together, and more and more video games hinge on their ability to allow cooperative game play. We are beginning to understand the effects of the rich social interactions that happen in these games,” said Velez.

One study recently published online in the journal Communication Research had American college students play the violent first-person-shooter video game Halo: Reach either cooperatively or competitively.  Study participants were then given a chance to behave aggressively towards each other by administrating a harsh noise to their partner. The aggressive behaviors of those who played cooperatively resembled those of people who didn't play a violent video game at all, suggesting that cooperative game play markedly decreased their aggressive effects.

In a follow-up study, Austrian college students played the violent first-person-shooter video game Time Splitters either cooperatively, competitively, or by themselves and then were given the opportunity to behave aggressively towards another random person who was not their game partner. Similar to the previous aggression measure, participants determined the intensity of an undesirable sound played to a random person for giving incorrect answers in a quiz. The researchers found that students who played cooperatively were less aggressive compared to those who played alone.  However, playing competitively only resulted in a slight amount of aggression compared to those who played alone.

The aggressive behaviors of those who played cooperatively resembled those of people who didn't play a violent video game at all, suggesting that cooperative game play markedly decreased their aggressive effects.

Dr. Velez and co-authors suggest that cooperative video game play led players to expect others to behave less aggressively and therefore, were less aggressive themselves. On the other hand, competitive game play did not substantially increase players' expectations of others to behave aggressively.

A related study recently published online in Computers in Human Behavior by Dr. Velez extended the findings by showing that playing with a helpful teammate not only increased players' pro-social behaviors toward teammates but also toward the opposing team.

This study had college students play the non-violent sports video game NBA Street Homecourt with a helpful teammate or an unhelpful teammate who students thought was another student participant. In reality, the teammate was actually an experimenter who was instructed to play the game in a certain way. The helpful teammate consistently passed the ball and initiated cooperative moves such as alley-oops and assisted slam dunks, but the unhelpful teammate played as a 'ball-hog' and generally did not help the participant.

After the video game, the students played a real-life game where they could donate money to a teammate or an opposing team member with the hope that the other person would reciprocate their donations.

“Playing cooperatively seems to make players assume that others will behave pro-socially later on, and that has broad implications for how players treat others after they put down the controller,”

The study results showed that helpful teammates were expected to reciprocate pro-social behaviors while unhelpful teammates were not. As a result, participants donated much more money to their helpful teammate. Interestingly, playing with a helpful teammate also increased participants' donations to opposing team members but, without any expectations of receiving money in return.

The results point to the importance of understanding how players interact when playing video games with others. With so many games offering multiplayer game play, the effects of video games are becoming increasingly complex.

 “Playing cooperatively seems to make players assume that others will behave pro-socially later on, and that has broad implications for how players treat others after they put down the controller,” Velez said. “However, the results suggest that playing with a particularly helpful teammate can make players behave pro-socially even if they don't expect a reward or positive behaviors in return, even when interacting with those they may dislike. It's as if they are inspired to behave pro-socially from playing with a helpful teammate.”

Other authors of the Communication Research paper were Tobias Greitemeyer of University of Innsbruck, Jodi Whitaker of University of Arizona, David Ewoldsen and Brad Bushman both of Ohio State University.

Read more research news.