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People’s Cognition of the Influence of Violence in Video Games

Authors:
Peoples Cognition of the Influence of Violence in
Video Games
Ruijie Wang
School of Mathematical Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, China, 300071
*Corresponding author. Email:sjdycht@163.com
ABSTRACT
As a highly popular form of entertainment, the impact of games on the whole human group is a topic worthy of
exploration. The frequency of violent elements is not low in the initial games, later video games, and even today's virtual
reality games. In addition, the audience of many games is all ages. The games have a particularly objective impact on
children and adolescents. Therefore, in a fairly long time span, many psychologists have conducted various studies on
the impact of violent games on people. However, the issue of the influence of violent elements on people generally
exists as an additional item of the overall study, which is only an additional condition, and a separate and more detailed
study is rarely carried out on this aspect. This article is to discuss peoples cognition of the influence of violent factors
in games. It mainly uses a way of questionnaires, and discusses the simple distinction of the overall population. The
results show that people who are exposed to games generally do not think that the violent elements of the game itself
will have a great impact, but people who do not play games have a cognition that is consistent with the research on the
impact of violent elements in games.
Keywords: violent game, recognition, education, violence, entertainment.
1. INTRODUCTION
Today technology has progressed to the point where
video games play an important role in society. People are
exposed to it at a younger age than before. It’s thought
that violent video game exposure is associated with
aggression. Precious research and experiments in the area
of whether violent video games cause violence are mixed.
Some research shows these games may not cause
violence directly[1]. Brief exposure to violent games
does not cause aggressive behavior. The summary was
tested by an experiment providing violent video games of
2 level. The results indicate that when game stimuli are
carefully controlled, the effects of 15 minutes of violent
and difficult game play on aggressive behavior may be
small and indistinguishable from zero. Another study
focused on this factor and gave a further summary: the
more you play, the more aggressive you become[2].
Aggressive behavior and hostile expectations increased
over days for violent game players, but not for nonviolent
video game players, and the increase in aggressive
behavior was partially due to hostile expectations. Most
of the research shows violent games cause bad influence.
They concentrate on different aspects. Violent video
games also make behaviors and capabilities different.
However, in the available literature, little research has
been done on the cognition of the impact of violent
games. It is not unimportant that, according to
TPB(theory of planned behavior), peoples judgments
about the possible impact of behavior can affect the
persons choice to complete the action. TPB is a
theoretical model developed by Ajzen, an American
psychologist, on the basis of TRA (theory of rational
action)[3]. Fishbein et al. proposed TRA for the first time
in 1975[4]. The theory posits that an individual's behavior
is driven directly by behavioral intention when he
performs a behavior, and the will depends on his attitude
and subjective norms about the behavior. Among them,
attitudes are individuals positive or negative overall
evaluation of the implementation of a certain behavior;
subjective norms are social pressure perceived by an
individual when deciding whether to implement a certain
behavior or not. Aizen extends the TRA theory and
proposes the TPB theory, which adds a variable that
predicts behavioral intentions, that is, the cognition of
behavioral control. This cognition is peoples perception
of the ease and usefulness of an action they are interested
in, and it makes better predictions and explanations for
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Proceedings of the 2022 3rd International Conference on Mental Health, Education and Human Development (MHEHD 2022)
Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.
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putting the behavior into practice. This paper uses a
questionnaire to collect data and and analyze the data on
human perceptions of the possible effects of violent
games.
Studying the influence of violent elements in games
on players can make the facts themselves have a correct
understanding of game developers, governments,
educators, etc., so as to complete the supervision of the
game and guide the players. However, the cognition of
the conclusion by the research population can also help
to understand the direct guidance and understanding of
players through the Internet, popular science books,
videos, and other channels.
2. METHODOLOGY
2.1. Hypothesis
By the statistics of the top sellers in the last decade on
Steam, a video game digital distribution service and
storefront, it can be found that although the proportion of
games containing violent elements has not changed much,
the violent elements in them are becoming more
reasonable, and extreme violence content is constantly
decreasing. According to the results, it can be inferred
that people have a reasonable understanding of the impact
of violent elements in games on people themselves.
2.2. The questionnaire survey
The purpose of the questionnaire is to explore the
participants cognition of the influence of violent
elements on people, and it was published online due to
the epidemic. The questionnaire contains a total of 18
questions. Each person answered an average of ten
questions, which included respondents age, gender, and
their definitions of violence in games. The questions do
not differentiate between age and gender, so the data can
be used to explore possible associations between the final
results and age and gender. Considering the different life
experiences of different groups of people, the
questionnaire starts to divide the interviewed groups into
three categories: those who have more exposure to games,
those who have little exposure to games, and those who
dont touch games.
The questions set in the questionnaire will also be
differentiated according to the different groups of people.
For people who are exposed to games, the question
setting will be based on the respondents gaming
experience. The content of the questionnaire starts with
the game content that the respondents often experience,
followed by the frequency of violent elements in the
respondents game experience, and finally the
respondents understanding and experience of the impact
of violent elements.
For people who are less exposed to gaming, the
question setting will be based on respondents
perceptions of possible gaming populations. The content
of the questionnaire begins with the respondents general
understanding of the game, followed by their
observations of the influence of the people around them,
and finally their guesses about the possible adverse
effects of the game. All the questions should be objective,
which means that the questionnaire cant imply any
opinion on the subject. Besides multiple-choice questions,
some descriptions of their feelings and behaviors by the
subjects or even random interviews with them is
necessary, which also supports the analysis.
3. RESULTS
A total of 84 questionnaires were returned. The
respondents who were willing to fill in the questionnaires
were concentrated in the 18-20 and 21-23 age groups,
accounting for 41.03% and 56.41% of the returned
questionnaires, respectively. The ratio of male to female
respondents was 1.167:1.
3.1. The different cognitive level of the groups
with different degrees of exposure to the game
The questionnaires were used to rate the degree of
impact on the respondents perceptions, from low to high
corresponding to a score of 1-5, and the table 1 below
corresponds to the scores corresponding to the three
groups. The result shows that all those who chose the
game with a high frequency did not think that the violent
elements in the game would have an impact on their lives,
while a small number of those with a low frequency
thought that they might have an impact, and those who
were not exposed to the game thought to varying degrees
that they would have an impact on their lives.
Table 1. The impact scores of different groups
High frequency
Low frequency
Not touch
Score
1
1.38
4
3.2. The frequency of violent games and the
frequency of violent scenes in memories
The questionnaire classified the frequency of violent
games and the frequency of violent scenes in memories
into five levels, and the data of these two topics were
cross-analyzed to obtain the results shown in the figure.
The horizontal coordinates indicate the frequency of
violent elements, divided into five levels, with different
colors indicating the frequency of violent scenes by
legend. As the frequency of violent elements increases,
people are also more likely to have violent scenes in their
memories. This means that the frequency of playing
video games may increase the appearance of violent
scenes in the mind.
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Figure 1 The cross-tabulation results of the frequency of violent games and the frequency of violent scenes in
memories
3.3. The frequency of recalled violent scenes
and the frequency of having the desire to
imitate violent behavior
The questionnaire classified the frequency of recalled
violent scenes and the frequency of having the desire to
imitate violent behavior into five levels, and the data of
these two topics were cross-tabulated to obtain the results
shown in the figure. The horizontal coordinates indicate
the frequency of recalled scenes of violence, divided into
five levels, with different colors indicating the frequency
of having the desire to imitate violent behavior by legend.
Combined with the result 3.1, the questionnaire
corroborates part of Hoffs conclusion that video-
gaming duration can have an effect on physical
violence[5].
Figure 2 The cross-tabulation results of the frequency of recalled violent scenes and the frequency of having the
desire to imitate violent behavior
4. DISCUSSION
Based on the results of 3.1, the more frequently
people are exposed to the game, the less likely they are to
believe that the game has an adverse effect. This is in line
with the theory of planned behavior[6], which states that
a persons level of perception of the adverse effects of
violent games determines whether he actively plays such
games at a certain frequency. A large body of research in
the field has shown that violent games directly or
indirectly have adverse effects on people. Firstly, people
who have a higher frequency of games in which violent
elements appear more often may be more aggressive in
reality. People who tend to like violent games will behave
more aggressively than those who do not[7]. Secondly,
having the experience of playing a violent role in a video
game can influence ones judgment of violent crime, and
people are more likely to accept real-life criminals if the
role played and the activities carried out are similar to
those in real life[8]. Furthermore, engaging in violent
video game play diminishes perceptions of our own
human qualities[9]. Both results of 3.2 and results of 3.3
can support the above points.
4.1. Theoretical implications
The research in this paper adds to the gap in previous
research in that peoples perceptions of the possible
adverse effects of games can in turn affect the degree to
which people are affected. The findings of this paper also
provide a basis for future research, which can take into
account the variable of peoples perceptions of the
possible negative effects of games in future research on
the effects of violent games on people. Since people are
exposed to different information about games at different
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times, and the types and contents of games are changing
with time, the impact of violent games on people is a
topic that needs to be explored for a long time. Both the
extended research and the empirical research in this paper
should follow the changes of the times and constantly
adjust to repeat the experiments so that the conclusions
can keep pace with the times.
4.2. Practical implications
In recent years, as the adverse effects of violent games
on youth have been gradually understood by the public,
the government and related platforms have tightened
rules for reviewing and regulating game content. Games
can help people relieve stress, but at the same time, they
may also have a negative impact on them[10], so a proper
knowledge of violent games is necessary. Through the
correct knowledge of the effects of violent games on
people, it can help the government and related platforms
to further adjust the rules. With this data, educators can
also help people better face the advantages and adverse
effects brought by games. The developers of games can
also make good games within a reasonable range in a
more focused way.
5. CONCLUSION
To explore peoples cognition of the influence of
violent factors in games, this article designs a
questionnaire and analyzes the data samples from the
Internet. Compared with the previous conjecture, which
is that people have a reasonable understanding of the
impact of violent elements in games on people
themselves, in reality, not all groups of people have the
same perception of the impact produced by violent games.
The more frequent the exposure to games, the less they
are perceived as having an impact on their lives. There is
no clear causal relationship between the two, but rather a
correlation.
This paper currently has many shortcomings. Due to
the epidemic, it is not possible to empirically study the
effects of violent games on people, and therefore
reasonable verification of the hypothesis conditions is
missing. Although a large amount of literature is
referenced, the conclusions may be time-sensitive and the
same experiments may change in the course of
technological development. Future empirical studies and
extended studies can be combined to present a more
comprehensive and improved result.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Firstly, I want to show my gratitude to my teachers
and professors at my university, who have provided me
with valuable guidance in the writing of this thesis.
Without all their enlightening instruction and impressive
kindness, I could not have completed my thesis.
REFERENCES
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[3] Ajzen, I. The theory of planned behavior.
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[4] Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. Belief, attitude, intention,
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