The Relationship Between Positive Factors In Violent Video Games And Aggressive Behavior:the Role Of Prosocial Content And Cooperation

Video game play has become an integral part of the lives of many people.However,almost of video games in the market are contain violent content.Content analyses showed that most top-selling video games contain violence and most children prefer to play violent video games.However,many video games contain prosocial parts,with more than half of the players being helpful while playing.Previous studies have found that prosocial video game play affects player’s post-game donation behavior and reduces aggressive cognition.Other studies have found that cooperative games increase trust between individuals and others,as well as cooperative behavior.All these indicate that the protective factors in the game can alleviate the player’s aggressive cognition,and thus reduce the player’s aggressive behavior.Therefore,this study aims to explore the influence of positive game factors in violent video games on aggressive behavior by focusing on positive game content(such as prosocial content)and positive game style(cooperation).Around this point,we conducted the following two studies:Based on the General Learning Model,Study 1 used eperimental methods to investigate the effects of prosocial content on aggressive behavior and the mediating role of perceived violence in the game.There were 57 college students participated in this study.We used different task types(i.e.,prosocial task,antisocial task)to manipulate the different task content.Based on the results of the study 1,study 2 used experimental methods to investigated the relationship between cooperation in violent video games and aggressive behavior.There were 92 college students participated in this study.In this study,we used an online violent video game to test whether cooperation in game decreased participant’s aggressive behavior.Moreover,we also explore the mediating role of hostile interpretation bias and the moderating role of win.The following 2 studies have gotten these results:(1)Prosocial content tasks can reduce participants’ aggressive behavior,but perceived violence does not mediate the relationship between prosocial content tasks and aggressive behavior.(2)Cooperation can decrease participants’ aggressive behavior in real life.The hostile interpretation bias mediated the relationship between cooperation and aggressive behavior.Specifically,players in the cooperative group showed lower levels of aggressive behavior after winning than those in the single player group,but there was no significant difference in aggressive behavior between the two groups after the game had failed.Finally,from the perspective of research design,the limitations of this study and future research ideas,as well as the theoretical and practical significance of the study were discussed.