title: Of virtual victims and victimized virtues: differential effects of experienced aggression in video games on social cooperation.
abstract: Two experimental studies were used to investigate how interacting with aggressive virtual characters in video games affects trust and cooperation of players. Study 1 demonstrates that experiencing virtual aggression from a victim's perspective can impair players' investments in a subsequent common goods dilemma situation. This effect is mediated by reduced expectations of trust in the cooperativeness of interaction partners. In Study 2 the same effect was replicated by using a different cooperation task and by investigating the moderating role of justice sensitivity from a victim's perspective as a dispositional factor. Participants transferred less money to an unknown partner in a trust game after exposure to aggressive nonplayer characters in a video game. This effect was stronger for people high in victim sensitivity. Results of both studies can be interpreted in line with the sensitivity to mean intentions model and add to the body of research on violent media effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Koblenz-Landau, Fortstrasse 7, Koblenz and Landau, Germany. rothmund@uni-landau.de
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rothmund
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gollwitzer
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Klimmt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011897:Random Allocation; D012306:Risk; D012919:Social Behavior; D035502:Trust; D018910:Video Games / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000523:psychology; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult