About
102
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Introduction
I am mainly interested in media psych and social psych. My research focus is on media use (including motivation as well as personality factors related to media use) and media effects on cognitive, emotional, and behavioral levels.
I am particularly interested in (a) the role of aggression, both as an independent and dependent variable, especially in the context of video games, and (b) gender-related factors of media use, including gender roles and gender stereotypes.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
April 2008 - present
August 2018 - May 2024
Position
- Professor (Assistant)
Description
- Head of research group 'Health Promotion and Aggression Prevention'; Head of Media and Experimental Laboratory (MExLab)
March 2002 - April 2003
Publications
Publications (102)
Video games (VGs) are known for their positive impact on players’ mood [1], emotions and emotion regulation [2], depressive symptoms [3], and general well-being [4]. However, only few studies have focused on the effects of eudaimonic (i.e., meaningful) VGs. In two laboratory studies (N = 145), we examined eudaimonic VG effects. In Study 1, we teste...
With billions of players, gaming is ubiquitous in everyday life. The growing interest in games has also sparked scientific interest in why people play. Existing measures, however, are focused on specific theories, genres, or games, lack validation, or highlight disordered gaming. Therefore, the Motivation to Play Scale (MOPS) provides a comprehensi...
Despite a growing body of statistics highlighting comparable gender prevalence and performance in gaming, the cliché persists that women are gaming amateurs or only “casual” players. Does the lower performance of women who are observed in certain video game contexts result from a stereotype threat effect (Steele & Aronson, 1995)? To test this, we i...
In the ongoing debate about whether violent video games (VVG) increase aggression, playing VVG has been suggested by some researchers to have an aggression-reducing effect. For example, Lee and colleagues (2021) showed that for heavy players, playing VVG reduced verbal and physical aggression over 6 months. However, this apparently cathartic effect...
Inflicting virtual violence on others violates internalized moral norms of social interaction and therefore usually triggers feelings of moral distress. However, people play and enjoy violent media, especially violent video games (VVG) in which they commit violent acts. In two experimental studies, we tested why people enjoy violent media and wheth...
Sexism does not only occur in overt hostile ways, but is often more subtle, such as gender biased language, which can be just as harmful. These subtler forms of sexism remain scarcely researched on social media, which is an important context of daily life especially for younger generations. The present content analysis examined 30 full transcripts...
In the past, research on video games has focused on negative gaming aspects and its potential risks, particularly regarding players’ well-being. Based on Seligman’s PERMA model (2011), which links the fulfillment of different factors (Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment) to flourishing mental-health, the present re...
The highly popular video game genre of Battle Royale (BR) games is characterized by survival and exploration elements that feature a last-man-standing gameplay, thus, motivating players to be the final contestant in the game. Drawing on the Self-Determination Theory the present study investigated the role of personal values, psychological needs and...
Meat is a food item that is often associated with masculinity. Considering this gender stereotype, research on vegan and vegetarian (veg*n) eating motives has focused on how distinct motives relate to stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. Quantitative studies examining how masculinity and femininity are integrated into the self-concept of thes...
In contrast to findings that violent video game (VVG) exposure has a desensitizing effect on empathy and physiological reactivity to scenes of violence [1], no desensitization was found for player responses to pain stimuli in three lab experiments. Compared to a non-violent game, VVG exposure neither affected physiological responses, nor participan...
In contrast to findings that violent video game (VVG) exposure has a desensitizing effect on empathy and physiological reactivity to scenes of violence [1], no desensitization was found for player responses to pain stimuli in three lab experiments. Compared to a non-violent game, VVG exposure neither affected physiological responses, nor participan...
Mindfulness is assumed to foster the ability to consistently act in line with one’s authentic self; a skill which has been found to enhance students’ autonomous motivated behavior in the educational context. However, evidence regarding how mindfulness can be integrated into existing conceptual frameworks such as the trans-contextual model is scarce...
With billions of players worldwide, gaming has become ubiquitous in everyday life. The growing interest and the increasing diversity of video games has also raised the scientific interest in the question of why people play. To date, however, existing measures assessing gaming motivation are either based on rather broad theories (e.g., Bartle, 1996;...
Geschlechterstereotype werden bereits im Kindesalter vor allem durch Eltern, das soziale Umfeld und die Medien vermittelt und gelernt. Klassische Medien, wie Film und Fernsehen, haben einen großen Einfluss auf diese Entwicklung. Aktuelle Studien zeigen jedoch, dass gerade für jüngere Generationen auch neuere Medien, wie soziale Medien oder Videospi...
With billions of players worldwide, playing video games has become ubiquitous in everyday life. The growing interest and increasing diversity of video games has also raised the scientific interest in the question of why people play. To date, however, existing measures assessing gaming motivation are mostly based on rather broad theoretical foundati...
Commercial video game titles with meaningful and morally relevant storylines are becoming increasingly popular and an intensely researched topic for entertainment scholars. In line with this research, the current study investigates behavioral, emotional, and personality patterns of moral decision-making in gaming with a special emphasis on selected...
Games including meaningful narratives and moral decisions have become increasingly popular. This case study examines (a) the prevalence of morality and moral foundations, (b) player decisions when encountering moral options, and (c) the influence of contextual factors (i.e., time pressure, played avatar, and humanness of nonplayable characters) on...
Video game titles with meaningful and morally relevant storylines are becoming increasingly popular and an intensely researched topic for entertainment scholars. Furthermore, virtual moral processing can contribute significantly to the understanding of human morality in general. In the current psychological laboratory experiment, N = 101 participan...
Although the concept of morality reaches back to discussions in the ancient Greece of Aristotle and has been studied thoroughly by cognitive, developmental and moral psychologists for decades (Haidt & Joseph, 2007), novel and technology-based research on virtual reality and video games have now contributed substantially to the understanding of mora...
Human morality is not only limited to the context of reality, but can also be applied to
computer pixels and virtual worlds, such as video games (Tamborini et al., 2018; Weaver & Lewis, 2012). When playing, people embody their avatar, identify with it and its choices, and perceive other in-game characters as social beings (Biocca, 1997; Hartmann &...
Impaired facial emotion recognition in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is in contrast to their intact emotional music recognition. This study tested whether emotion congruent music enhances facial emotion recognition. Accuracy and reaction times were assessed for 19 children with ASD and 31 controls in a recognition task with angry, ha...
Workplace bullying is a phenomenon that can have serious detrimental effects on health, work-related attitudes, and the behavior of the target. Particularly, workplace bullying exposure has been linked to lower level of general well-being, job satisfaction, vigor, and performance and higher level of burnout, workplace deviance, and turnover intenti...
Menschen sind soziale Wesen. Das aufgrund der gesundheitlichen Gefährdungssituation durch das neuartige Coronavirus geltende Gebot der sozialen Distanzierung (social distancing), die nachdrückliche Aufforderung zuhause zu bleiben (stay at home) sowie die in vielen Ländern erlassenen Regelungen zu Kontaktverboten und Ausgangssperren stellen daher ei...
Although numerous media literacy trainings on Internet safety for children and adolescents have been conducted, their number contrasts sharply with the few systematic studies on their effectiveness. In this study, we describe the evaluation of nationwide-implemented trainings on Internet safety in Luxembourg, which included perceptions of learning...
This handbook provides a strong collection of communication- and psychology-based theories and models on media entertainment, which can be used as a knowledge resource for any academic and applied purpose. Its 41 chapters offer explanations of entertainment that audiences find in any kind of ‘old’ and ‘new’ media, from classic novels to VR video ga...
Moral dilemmas have become increasingly popular in single player video games, although it is still widely unknown why players find them pleasurable, how they process dilemmas, and which variables affect the processing. Therefore, three different focus groups sessions with experienced players (N = 16) were conducted. Player perceptions of meaningful...
From complex multi-players to casual gaming: video games are the most common virtual environment for entertainment that younger generations spend a significant time in. Although early game titles already featured morality-related topics, implementing meaningful eudaimonic playing based on moral decision making has become increasingly popular. Unfor...
Stereotype threat (ST), defined as the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s own group, has been demonstrated in various social contexts. Regarding video games, for example, informing female participants that men would outperform women in gaming leads to gender differences in performance. To date, however, these studies have not look...
Previous research has started to investigate the gaming context through the lens of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a macro theory of human motivation (Deci & Ryan, 2000). In doing so, researchers have broadly conceptualized video games as virtual environments (and thus, contextual variables), which may account for psychological need satisfaction...
Negative attributes are gendered too: Conceptualizing and measuring positive and negative facets of sex-role identity.
Moral dilemmas become increasingly popular in video games, although the entirety of facilitating and influencing factors is still widely unknown. Extended philosophical and theoretical analyses were made on video games like Fallout 3 (Bethesda Softworks, 2008; Schulzke, 2009; Sicart, 2013), Fable III (Microsoft Game Studios, 2010; Schrier, 2012) or...
In two studies (Study 1: N = 130; Study 2: N = 56) participants played a video game (Bejeweled 3; SkyChasers) and were either confronted with a stereotype threat (ST) or not. ST is defined as the risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s own group and has been investigated in various field, i.a. in gaming. In the first study participants...
Background. From the theory of compensatory Internet use, escapism through videogames may constitute a coping strategy that is sometimes helpful but, in some cases, maladaptive. Yet, evidence supporting this view has, to date, been gathered only through the use of explicit self-reported questionnaires, which are known to be biased. Accordingly, the...
Abschlussbericht des Projekts #LËTZSTEREOTYPE18 - Geschlechterbezogene Rollen und Geschlechterstereotype bei Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen in Luxemburg
In contrast to the effects of game content, violent video games have less been researched with regard to players' preferences for these games, and whether these preferences are related to certain personality characteristics. Using a novel brief and uni-dimensional self-report measure, the present research examined the role of personality factors an...
Previous research has tested the effects of video games on players' Rape Myth Acceptance (RMA) with regard to either sexual or violent contents. The current study aimed at investigating the combined effects of sexual and violent material in video games on players' RMA. Participants (N = 82) played either a sexualized female game character or a non-...
There are numerous studies on the stereotyped nature of video game characters, but knowledge is sparse on the nature of their appeal to players. Based on prior work in mass media research, this study examined the inclination to play characters of both genders in a third person action game. The results of an online survey with 245 respondents strong...
Im Rahmen einer Onlinestudie sahen insgesamt 459 Frauen und Männer Bilder von Models und Videospielcharakteren, welche entweder sexualisiert (d.h. freizügig) oder nicht sexualisiert dargestellt waren. Die Konfrontation mit sexualisierten Bilder hatte sowohl Auswirkungen auf die Betrachteten als auch die Betrachtenden. Den dargestellten Frauen und M...
In a survey study, 158 dyads of German parents and their 9 to 12-year-old children reported on their television and video game (VG) consumption, parental mediation strategies, and family climate. Parents also reported their beliefs concerning media effects. We found that mediation strategies differ from acknowledged media usage conceptions in that...
Die Psychologie beschäftigt sich mit dem Verhalten, dem Erleben und den Bewusstseinsprozessen von Menschen. Sie erforscht deren Entwicklung über die gesamte Lebensspanne sowie deren innere und äußere Bedingungen und Ursachen. Die Psychologie betrachtet dabei den Menschen aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven. Ziel ist es insgesamt, den Menschen besser...
Elektronische Medien sind heute allgegenwärtig und somit soziale Realität. So bieten Smartphones oder Tablet-‐Computer eine Vielzahl von Kommunikations-‐ und Unterhaltungsangeboten, die jederzeit und inzwischen selbst an den entlegensten Orten verfügbar sind. Insbesondere die Nutzung elektronischer Spiele ist dabei weder auf eine bestimmte Alters...
Evidence suggests that violent media influence users’ cognitions, affect and behavior in a negative way, whereas prosocial media have been shown to increase the probability of prosocial behavior. In the present study it was tested whether empathy moderates these media effects. In two experiments (N=80 each), inducing empathy by means of a text (Stu...
Happ and Melzer follow up on the results obtained in Study 1 and Study 2 by presenting Study 3 in which they manipulate the moral valence of a violent video game character (good vs. evil). This leads to a more general way of interpreting the role of empathy when using media. Empathy has to be seen as a temporary protective factor against some of th...
In the final chapter, Happ and Melzer discuss the results of their experimental studies more broadly and give an outlook for future research. As a summary, practical applications of the findings are discussed. Results indicate that increasing empathy might not always be the appropriate way to reduce aggressive behavior. So far, taking the perspecti...
The authors provide an in-depth analysis of the current research on empathy in violent media, and video games in particular. They argue that little attention has been paid to the role of empathy in the media context so far. Happ and Melzer present two experimental studies that test the effects of empathy induction before playing a video game on pla...
Happ and Melzer introduce the two major components of their research. Following the detailed description of the multifaceted construct of empathy, the chapter contains an overview on findings from current research on media effects with a particular emphasis on video games. Numerous studies document the negative effects of violent media on many vari...
Recent findings indicate that events in video games as well as players’ perceptions of game characters moderate well-established video game effects. This includes the level of identification with game characters, and players’ interpretation of whether or not the actions of the characters are conceived as moral. In the present study, it was tested w...
Although people typically avoid engaging in antisocial or taboo behaviors, such as cheating and stealing, they may succumb in order to maximize their personal benefit. Moreover, they may be frustrated when the chance to commit a taboo behavior is withdrawn. The present study tested whether the desire to commit a taboo behavior, and the frustration...
The “Macbeth effect” denotes the phenomenon that people wish to cleanse themselves physically when their moral self has been threatened. In this article we argue that such a threat to one’s moral self may also result from playing a violent video game, especially when the game involves violence against humans. The cleansing effect should be particul...
While violent media has adverse effects on cognition, emotion and behavior, prosocial content promotes these variables in a prosocial way. Greater individual levels of empathy as well as increasing the level of empathy in media content typically foster prosocial behavior and reduce aggression. Two experiments replicated game content findings, and a...
Meta-analyses confirm a negative relationship between aggressive behavior and empathy, that is, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. Based on theoretical considerations, it was, therefore, hypothesized that a lack of empathic responsiveness may be characteristic for cyberbullies in particular. In the present study, 2.070 stud...
Electronic mass media have become part of people’s life almost everywhere around the globe. Media ubiquity implies the permanent availability of ‘media windows’ to the world that provide information, social contact, and experiences of entertainment and learning. With regard to violence, however, media appearance and media content also bear potentia...
The present paper introduces Audioworld, a novel game-like application for goal-oriented computer-supported learning (CSL). In Audioworld, participants localize sound emitting objects depending on their spatial position. Audioworld serves as a flexible low cost test bed for a broad range of human cognitive functions. This comprises the systematic t...
The motion detection technology used in innovative game controlling devices like the Nintendo Wii-Remote® provides experiences of realistic and immersive game play. In the present study (N=62) it was tested whether this technology
may also provoke stronger aggression-related effects than standard forms of interaction (i.e., keyboard and mouse). Wit...
Different approaches have been proposed on the design and development of digital and interactive technology in mobile learning contexts. In line with recent findings in literature, we suggest that mobile learning systems benefit from a criteria-based iterative design and development process that incorpo- rates evaluation results of mobile learning...
INTRODUCTION In this article, we define and describe the concept of online communities, outline the essential conditions under which they emerge and present some means that foster the building of online communities. "Online community" is one of the buzzwords in the age of Web 2.0. Within this article, we refer to online commu-nity as a voluntary gr...
This paper introduces the AdRacer system for multifaceted testing and in-depth analyses of game effects and in-game advertising efficiency. AdRacer combines an immersive driving simulator, 3D game environment, recording of players’ gaze directions, and application of memory
tests. A pilot study tested the effects of game violence on memory for bran...
Different approaches have been proposed on the use of digital and interactive technology in mobile learning contexts. In line with recent findings in the literature, we suggest that mobile learning systems benefit from an iterative design and development process within a holistic, socio-technical system view. This system view makes allowance for th...
Radio plays have recently regained both popular interest and commercial success. Yet, listeners are not provided with either feedback channels or the ability to actively participate in this medium. The TAPE-Player concept described in the present paper extends the radio play medium by adding interactivity as well as participation to the production...
Das Hörspiel als Unterhaltungsmedium hat in den letzten Jahren wieder an Beliebtheit gewonnen. Mit dem TAPE-Player wird ein innovatives Konzept vorgestellt, das die traditionelle Nutzung (Zuhören) durch die Möglichkeit zur Aufzeichnung und Bearbeitung der eigenen sprachlichen Rolleninterpretati- on um eine aktive Produktionskomponente erweitert. Wä...
In this paper, we present Moles and Mini Moles, a combination of learning software tools that serve in bridging the gap between inside and outside classroom learning experiences. Secondary school students use these tools for hypothesizing, transferring, and testing lessons learned in the classroom into their physical environment. In particular, stu...
Priming effects in perceptual tests of implicit memory are assumed to be perceptually specific. Surprisingly, changing object colors from study to test did not diminish priming in most previous studies. However, these studies used implicit tests that are based on object identification, which mainly depends on the analysis of the object shape and th...
Current pedagogical approaches emphasize the procurement of media literacy in classroom learning. In this respect, mixed reality systems and high interaction media applications provide potentially exciting learning experiences for children by bridging the gap between theoretical and experiential learning in the physical world. We describe the const...
In this paper, we describe how the mixed reality application, Bubble Caster, technically works and how we involved children ages 7 to 8 in the design process. The children used their storytelling and programming skills to produce the interactive, mixed reality shadow play, The Magic Cauldron. The project enabled the children to acquire elementary p...
The interactive and multi-protagonist (IMP) film is a novel concept that extends the hypermovie genre. The IMP film is based on the common structures of linear narrative storytelling and provides the viewer with various decision points within the evolving story that support an active choice among different protagonists' views. The viewer will thus...
In fünf Experimenten wurden Erinnerungen an das Merkmal Farbe geprüft. Dabei wurden speziell implizite Gedächtnistests eingesetzt, in denen eine Bearbeitung ohne Verweis auf eine vorangegangene Lernphase und explizite Erinnerungsaufforderung erfolgte. Die empirischen Befunde in diesen Verfahren sprechen eindeutig gegen die in der Gedächtnispsycholo...
Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of having people carry out a sequence of actions in an environment on
the spatial representation of the environment. The actions were linked by a common theme (e.g., writing a letter). In Experiment
1, the spatial memory test consisted of an implicit and an explicit distance estimation task. Par...
Previous research with implicit memory tests has shown that the typical picture superiority effect with explicit memory instructions can he reversed on verbal perceptual tests (e.g., word-stem completion task). Two experiments explored whether the picture superiority effect can be restored with a verbal conceptual test of implicit memory (i.e., cat...
