User Involvement in Violent Content, Effects of

The Experience of Game Play

Ron Tamborini of Michigan State University suggested that the attributes of video games associated with a first-person point of view and a user’s active role in decisions to aggress are powerful conditional forces that influence aggressive outcomes. Firstperson games are thought to increase identification with the gaming character through involvement and immersion, which subsequently increase shortterm outcomes such as aggression. Involvement, defined as a psychological state in which attention and energy are focused on the medium, and immersion, defined as the extent to which the player or person perceives being in and interacting with the mediated environment, are considered necessary components to the larger construct of presence (i.e., the experience of being in the environment, even when physically located in another environment) (Witmer & Singer, 1998). The decision to shoot or punch “as” a character in a first-person game rather than “with” a character leads to greater presence— as defined through involvement and immersion. It is the decision to aggress that creates or activates existing aggressive scripts that subsequently result in aggressive outcomes.

Attributes inherent to advanced technologies such as virtual reality (e.g., increased vividness and interactivity) are thought to increase presence beyond traditional console and passive-watching environments. According to this logic, the violent gaming situation eliciting the greatest levels of involvement and presence should have the greatest short-term effect on aggression. Research by Matthew Eastin [Page 360]at The University of Texas at Austin found some support for the connections among presence, interactivity, and aggression; however, because of the participants’ lack of experience using virtual reality systems and a potential disengagement between firing a gun during game play and the respondent’s existing real-world scripts for aggression, overall levels of presence did not predict aggression and were relatively low among virtual reality participants. Here, Eastin’s research hypothesized that a violent behavior resembling more common social violence, such as punching, kicking, and so on, would increase the behavior salience (and potentially aggressive cognition) more than a shooting-type game.

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