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What Are the Effects That Cause Concern?

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Does Playing Video Games Make Players More Violent?

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Abstract

This chapter considers the different types of effects that violent video games might have on players. Earlier work on media violence explained many of the alleged effects of violent portrayals on television and film by using specific theories concerning the nature of people’s psychological reactions to media. There were concerns that exposure to media violence could lead to imitation effects, trigger aggressive impulses, reduce socially conditioned controls over aggression, arouse people to anger, desensitise them to being less concerned about violence and the plight of victims of violence, discharge aggressive impulses, reduce prosocial behavioural tendencies, create greater acceptance of social violence or greater fear of it, and serve as a mood management device. This chapter considers these effects in relation to video game violence. The chapter also examines new theories, such as the general aggression model and catalyst model, trying to integrate video game effects at cognitive, emotional and behavioural levels.

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  1. Media and Communication, University of Leicester, Loughton, UK

    Barrie Gunter

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Gunter, B. (2016). What Are the Effects That Cause Concern?. In: Does Playing Video Games Make Players More Violent?. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57985-0_3

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