Are Boys More Aggressive than Girls after Playing Violent Computer Games Online? An Insight into an Emotional Stroop Task

doi:10.4236/psych.2014.51006

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2014. Vol.5, No.1, 27-31

Published Online Janu ary 201 4 in Sci R es (http://www.scirp.org/journal/psych) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2014.51006

Are Boys More Aggressive than Girls after Playing Violent

Computer Games Online? An Insight into an Emotional

Stroop Task

Jingjin Tian1*, Zhang Qi an1,2,3*#

1School of Applied Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

2Department of Psychology, Southwest Univer s ity, Chongqing, China

3Center for the Study of Mental Health Education, Southwest University, Chongqing, China

Email: #[email protected], zhq@swu.edu.cn

Received November 9th, 2013; revised December 8th, 2013; accepted January 4th, 2014

mons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, pro-

vided the original work is prop erly cited. In accordance of the Creative Commons Attributio n License all Copy-

The study was to examine the gender differences in aggression among Chinese children after playing vio-

lent computer games by using emotional STROOP task. 98 children participated in this study, with 49 as-

signed to violent computer game group and the other 49 assigned to nonviolent computer game group.

The results demonstrated that there were significant differences in main affect of game type, and signifi-

cant Game Type × Gender interaction as well. In particular, boys’ aggression was significantly impacted

by violent games, whereas girls’ aggression was not significantly impacted by violent games. The impli-

cation of this research is that, the significant difference in aggression to gender is activated, and that boys

were more aggressive and sensitive to violent games than girls.

Keywords: Boys; Girls; Violent Computer Games; Children

Introduction

Considerable researches reported that media violence influ-

enced aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, aggressive

thoughts, physiological arousal, and aggressive behavior (An-

derson, 1997; Anderson & Bushman, 2002; Bushman, 2013;

Geen & O’Neal, 1969; Huesmann, 1986; Huesmann, Eron,

Lefkowitz, & Walder, 1973; Huesmann, Moise, Podolski, &

Eron, 2003). Some researchers asserted that aggression was a

type of explicit behavior intended to harm another individual

who was motivated to avoid that harm, and it was not an un-

clear affect, emotion or thought (Anderson & Bushman, 2002).

Other experts, however, argued that human aggression was a

kind of attacking cognition, affect and behavior directed toward

another individual (Baron & Richardson, 1994; Geen, 2001). In

our point of view, we tend to consider aggression as an inten-

tional behavior to harm others based on aggressive cognition,

affect and thought.

As for the association between violent computer games and

subsequent aggression, former researchers held the view that

playing violent video games would increase aggressive behav-

ior through meta-analysis (Anderson et al., 2010; Ferguson,

2007; Anderson, Gentile, & Buckley, 2007). For instance, it

was suggested rewarding violent video games playing increases

aggressive behavior by aggressive thinking (Carnagey &

Anderson, 2005; Uhlmann & Swanson, 2004; Barlett, Anderson,

& Swing, 2009; Zhen, Xie, Zhang, Wang, & Li, 2011). Addi-

tionally, effects of reward and punishment given to video game

violence are significant among college males (Ballard & Line-

berger, 1999). Experts also examined reward and punishment

behavior among males following video game playing, it was

showed that females were punished significantly more strin-

gently as game violence increased, but this finding should be

interpreted with caution (Ballard & Robert, 1999). What’s more,

it did reveal that exposure to violent video games increases

physiological arousal and hostile feelings and decreases pro-

social behavior (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). Some research-

ers examined the cause-effect relationship between exposure to

firearm violence and subsequent perpetration of serious vio-

lence, and it was indicated that exposure to firearm violence

approximately doubled the probability that an adolescent will

perpetrate serious violence over the subsequent 2 years (Bin-

genheimer, Brennan, & Earls, 2005). There was a significant

association between the time spent watching television and the

likelihood of subsequent aggressive acts by controlling previ-

ous aggressive behavior, childhood neglect, family income,

neighborhood violence, parental education and psychiatric dis-

orders (Johnson, Cohen, Smailes, Kasen, & Brook, 2002). Evi-

dence was steadily accumulating that prolonged exposure to

violent TV programming during childhood is associated with

subsequent aggression (Anderson & Bushman, 2002; Zhang,

Zhang, & Wang, 2013; Zhang, Zhong, & Zhang, 2013). The

evidence strongly suggested that exposure to violent video

The authors (Dr. Qian Zhang & Jingjin Tian)

contributed equally to the

manuscrip t , so they are both the first author

#Correspo nding author.

OPEN ACCESS 27

J. J. TIAN, Z. QIAN

games was a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behav-

ior, cognition and affect and for decreased empathy and pro-

social behavior (Anderson et al., 2010). Other researchers, how-

ever, argued although preference for violent media was corre-

lated with aggressive behavior, no evidence indicated viewing

violence in natural settings caused an increase in subsequent

aggressiveness and some other factors (status hierarchy, trait

aggressiveness, higher academic level) required to be investi-

gated (Freedman, 1984, 1986, 2003; Garandeau, Ahn, & Rod-

kin, 2011; Bushman, 1995).

Nowadays, more and more Chinese children spent plenty of

time playing violent games in computer. Some of them were

prone to solving problems resorting to aggression like the vio-

lent image within the virtual games. Consequently, imitated

aggression caused by violent computer games exerted a nega-

tive impact on mental health for Chinese children such as ag-

gression, and ultimately may even cause anti-social and crime

behavior. A developmental theory was proposed to account for

the relation between exposure to media violence and increased

aggressive behavior. It was concluded that a bidirectional cau-

sal relation between media violence and aggression, and the

findings could be generalized to real-world violence (Friedrich

& Huston, 1986). Nevertheless, a notable feature of the existing

researches was the gender difference in aggression after expo-

sure to media violence, which was unclear up till now. Some

researchers explored sex differences in processing words relat-

ing to acts of direct and indirect aggression. Males demon-

strated a perceptual bias for words relating to acts of direct

aggression, taking significantly longer to correctly color name

direct aggression words (Craig, Browne, Beech, & Stringer,

2006; Cross, & Campbell, 2012; Ramirez, Andreu, & Fujihara,

2001; Smith, & Waterman, 2005). Females were slower to cor-

rectly color name indirect aggression words. It was observed

that a high level of physical aggression was the best predictor

of bias in both males and females (Smith & Waterman, 2005).

Although fierce debates existed among scientists as to the

correlation between media violence and aggression of children,

gender difference in aggression caused by media violence (vio-

lent games) was unresolved. Thus, the present study attempted

to examine whether significant differences existed in aggres-

sion among boys and girls after exposing violent computer

games by employing emotional Stroop task. Specifically, we

sought to examine the gender differences in aggression among

Chinese children after playing violent computer games. Based

on prior researches and research rationale, we hypothesized that

boys were more aggressive than girls by playing violent com-

puter games than by playing non-violent computer games.

Method

Parti c i pants

98 Chinese children from a primary school from Southwest

area participated in the study. Their age was ranged from 12 to

21 (M = 16.21, SD = 1.62). 49 children playing VIRTUAL

COP2 (Personal Shooting) were regarded as violent game

group, and 49 children playing FIGHT LANDLORD (Card

Game) were deemed as nonviolent game group. The study was

ethically approved by the Academic Committee from the De-

partment of Psychology at Southwest University in China. All

participants were treated according to the ethical guidelines of

the American Psychological Association (APA, 2013).

Experimental Design

Multi-factor design was used, with game type and gender as

independent variables and aggression as dependent variable. 2

(Game Type: violent vs. non-violent) × 2 (Goal Word: aggres-

sive vs. non-aggressive) × 2 (Gender: boy vs. girl) repeated

three measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted

with game type and gender as between-group factor, and goal

word as within-group factor.

Instruments

Computer Games

Since some children may rarely expose to computer games,

the selection of computer games was moderate in difficulty. In

addition, we choose computer games which were not played by

participants to avoid the familiarity of computer games (Some-

one was needed to exclude if he or she once played this type of

game). Based on this, VIRTUAL COP2 (Personal Shooting)

and FIGHT LANDLORD (Card Game) were selected as the

stimuli and materials in the study. Specifically, VIRTUAL

COP2 required players to kill the gangsters by shooting with a

blooding screen (language attack and body-fighting content),

which was in line with the definition of violent video games

(Anderson & Bushman, 2001). FIGHT LANDLORD de-

manded players to strive for higher score than other players to

achieve victory without any violent scene and blooding image

(body-fighting content and language attack), which was com-

plied with the definition of nonviolent video games (Anderson

& Bushman, 2001). The playing time of each game lasted for

roughly 15 minutes.

Computer

The computer resolution rate was 1366 × 768 pixel, and the

refresh rate was 75 Hz. The distance between participants and

screen was around 60cm, the faces of participants were parallel

with the screen, and their eyes were focused on the screen cen-

tre.

Goal Words

50 aggressive and 50 nonaggressive words were randomly

matched. The words were used in NO. 72 black italics and pre-

sented in three colors (green, red, yellow) on screen centre with

a gray background. The presented order of goal words was

counterbalanced.

Emotional Stroop Task Procedure

Participants signed an inform consent before experiment,

then they were randomly distributed to play violent or nonvio-

lent games, after that they finished emotional Stroop task. They

could terminate at any time if they felt uncomfortable. The

Stroop task procedure was programmed by E-prime psychology

software. Instructions told that the experiment was to test speed

and accuracy of responses, and the goal words would be pre-

sented in different colors. If the word color was green, press “1”

on keyboard; if the word color is red, press “2”; if the word

color is yellow, press “3”. Participants should react as quickly

and accurately as possible to distinguish the word color rather

than word meaning, then the next trial began. After instructions

appeared, a sign “+” emerged on the screen center with the time

of 300 ms, then the goal words appeared on screen center for

1000 ms. The inter-stimulus-interval (ISI) was from 200 ms to

OPEN ACCESS

J. J. TIAN, Z. QIAN

300 ms. After participants reported the word color, a blank

screen would appear for 100 ms, and the program entered into

next trial. If participants did not respond in 1000 ms, the pro-

gram also entered into the next trial automatically. Meanwhile,

accuracy rate and reaction time (RT) were recorded (Figure 1).

Practical session. 20 trials existed in practical session but did

not appear in subsequent formal session. The program returned

to practical session if the accuracy rate was below 80 percent.

The session was to familiar participants with key pressing, and

to counterbalance the distinction of the color and key pressing.

Formal session. The experiment was divided into 3 blocks,

in which 40 trials and totally 120 trials were presented on av-

erage. 50 aggressive and 50 nonaggressive words were pre-

sented in one of three colors (green, red, yellow), and each

word appeared only once in each block. Participants had a short

rest among blocks, then the program entered into the next block.

The mean accuracy rate of the participants was from 85 to 95

percent, and the data of wrong and missing reaction was ex-

cluded.

Results

The Main Effe c t of Vi ol ent Movies on Aggression

One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to

examine the main effect of goal word on children’s aggression

(see Table 1).

Table 1 showed that a significant main effect of goal word

was found in reaction time (RT), and the RT of aggressive word

was significantly longer than that of nonaggressive word (F =

4.36, p < 0.05).

The Game Type × Gender Interaction

In this study, we thought the RT of aggressive words was

longer than that of nonaggressive words (compared to partici-

pants playing nonviolent games). Thus, we assumed each par-

ticipant had an aggressively priming score (APS), which was

RT values by subtracting nonaggressive words from aggressive

words, and examined whether significant difference of APS

found in group type (see Table 2).

Table 2 showed the average APS of experimental group (14

ms) was higher than that of control group (1 ms) by playing

violent games, Table 3 showed significant difference in main

effect of game type on aggression (F = 0.58, p < 0.05).

Multivariate analy sis of covariance (MANCOVA) was carri-

ed out to examine whether significant difference was found in

APS among independent variables. The results can be seen in

Table 3.

Table 3 showed that there was significant difference in

Game Type × Gender interaction (F = 4.89, p < 0.01). Simple

effect analysis showed the average APS of girls playing violent

and nonviolent games were 5.88 and 10.57, respectively, and

no significant difference was found (F = 2.14, p > 0.05). The

average APS of boys playing violent and nonviolent games was

8.63 and −1.24, respectively, and that the APS of boys playing

violent games was significant higher than that of boys playing

nonviolent games (F = 4.21, p < 0.05). The results can be seen

in Table 4.

Discussion

The study selected Chinese children as participants, which

Figure 1.

Emotional stroop task.

Table 1.

RT differences between aggressive and nonaggressive words.

Goal Words

Aggressive Words Nonaggressive Words F

M SD M SD

RT 548 52.95 532 52.04 4.36

Note: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Table 2.

APS differences between violent game and nonviolent game group.

Group Type

Aggressive Non-aggressive APS

M SD M SD

Violent 558 50.26 534 47.95 +14

Nonviolent

532 54.79 531 55.03 +1

Note: APS-aggressively priming score (mean RT values of aggressive words

minus nona ggr es si ve w ord s).

Table 3.

MANCOVA for Game Type, Game Type × Gender interaction in APS.

Variables

Game Type

225

26.55

0.58

Movie Type × Gender

1125

125.06

4.89**

Note: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

Table 4.

The comparison between boys and girls in APS.

Gender

Violent Game

Nonviolen t Game

Boys 8.63 −1.24 4.21*

Girlsr

5.88

10.57

2.14

Note: *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001.

was different from prior researches (Bushman, 1995). In addi-

tion, we used emotional Stroop task to explore the gender dif-

ferences in effects of violent computer games on aggression

among children. It was showed that significant difference in

main effect of game type on aggression among children, and

that significant Game Type × Gender interaction was found,

particularly aggression was significantly activated by violent

games only among boys, but not among girls. Based on this, we

inferred that boys may play more violent games than girls, thus

leading to rapid development of their aggressively cognitive

mechanisms. This result, to some extent, was consistent with

our hypothesis that boys may be more aggressive than girls by

playing violent games rather than nonviolent games. Therefore,

boys on campus may be more prone to playing violent games

OPEN ACCESS 29

J. J. TIAN, Z. QIAN

than girls. In the present study, game types, goal words and

gender were independent variables, which all significantly af-

fected children’s aggression, partly supporting Cognitive-new

Association Model (CAM) and General Aggression Model

(GAM) (Anderson, 2002; Berkowitz, 1990; Anderson, Ander-

son, & Deuser, 1996). Additionally, boys were more likely to

be activated by violent stimuli than girls, which replicated pre-

vious researches (Salmivalli & Kaukiainen, 2004; Boutwell,

Franklin, Barnes, & Beaver, 2011; Lansford et al., 2012).

Therefore, it could be assumed that repeated exposure to violent

media may form aggressively cognitive structure for boys, and

thus boys showed explicit aggressions. In conclusion, there

were significant gender differences in aggression among chil-

dren after playing violent computer games, and the boys

showed more willingness to be aggressive and susceptible to

violence than girls after viewing violent movies. Furthermore,

the mechanism (e.g., culture, neuroscience) underlying the

significant effects of violent computer games on aggression

among Chinese children required psychologists to explore fur-

ther.

Acknowledgemen ts

The research was supported by the National Youth Grant of

National Educational Science Planning Project in 2013 (CBA-

130128), and funded by a Youth Grant of Social Sciences and

Humanities from the Ministry of Education in China (13YJC-

190030) as well as the Fundamental Research Funds for the

Central Universities (SWU1409135). Writing of the paper was

also supported by a scholarship from the China Scholarship

Council (CSC) to Dr. Qian Zhang during his visit at University

of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (201308505040). Sincere

gratitude should be given to the anonymous reviewers for their

thoughtful feedback on this draft.

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