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Luke Stonehocker
English 2010
Academic Paper

How Can Video Games Affect Our Social Behavior

It is estimated that 155 million Americans regularly play video games. That number
grows a lot if you look at the whole world. As video games become very popular and are played
by more people, one may start to wonder how these video games are affecting our actual
behavior. Technology is advancing very fast and with this comes more realistic games. These
games are getting closer to mimicking real life, which might have a larger impact on how they
can affect our minds. A lot of people think that video games are making people more violent, and
blame all violent news on video games. If video games really are causing more violent behavior
is there something we need to do to regulate them? So my question is, how can video games
affect our social behavior?
Playing Violent Video Games and Desensitization to Violence by Jeanne Funk
Brockmyer discusses how video games may lead to users becoming desensitized to the world
around them. The author talks about how video games are one of the many ways that people can
be exposed to media violence, and that this can increase aggressive thought, behaviour, and
emotion. The article also mentions that desensitization would be caused from long term
influences that can even begin in early childhood while watching violent cartoons.
Brockmyer writes about how not all people will act out aggressively because a balanced
home and learning nonviolent problem solving can balance out the risk factors from exposure to
violent media. He also explains that continuous exposure over a long amount of time can be

greater than the impact of passive experiences learned throughout life, which would lead to
desensitization.
When someone talks about desensitization then there needs to be someway to measure it
to test if its actually happening. Brockmyer talks about how it can be measured through many
ways such as behavioral indicators and the role of empathy, psychophysiologic measures, and
also heart and respiratory rate. In conclusion, Brockmyer says that increased aggression and a
decrease of empathy and prosocial behavior can be a result when someone is desensitized to
violence from exposure to video games and other media.
Effects of Video Games on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviors During Development
by Thomas A. Kooijmans, the author explains how video games are getting more realistic and
this is leading to them having a greater impact on our minds. He then goes on explained the
popular model called, The General Aggression Model or GAM which was from the research
of Anderson and Bushman in 2002. The GAM tries to explain the development of aggression and
individual differences in susceptibility to the influence of violent video games. There are many
variables that are involved such as situational and personological variables that affect a person's
internal state. This theory explains that internal state includes thoughts, feelings, and arousal.
These three things influence each other which leads to how a person sees an aggressive act. After
this process of how the brain sees the aggressive act, this is when decision making starts to occur.
Kooijmans goes into further detail of explaining the short and long term effects in the
GAM theory. He says that in the moment while playing a video game and being presented with
situational variables in the game can be seen as short term, while long term effects are just
hypothesis. In the end, Kooijmans explains that the advancement of video games is helping our
understanding, but there is still a lot more research that needs to be done.

The social effects of video games: Games that promote helpfulness by Gwen Dewar
talks about prosocial games, and if they can actually make people friendly. Dewar covers a study
that took place in Singapore where researchers surveyed 727 middle school students, and tested
each childs prosocial attitudes and behavior. Each child was asked several questions and
whether or not they agreed with the statements. Then they were asked to interpret multiple
scenarios. The results ended up being that kids who spent more time playing prosocial video
games reported more prosocial behaviors. And when presented with the social scenarios, these
kids were also less likely to attribute hostile intentions to other people.
Its really easy to take this and just think that video games was the explanation, but what
about each child's upbringing? How would this affect the outcome of the study? This is where
Dewar talks about another study that was conducted by Gentiles team. In their study they chose
to monitor some Japanese kids, researchers interviewed students in the 5th-, 8th- and 11th grades
at two different points in time. The students that said they spent more time playing prosocial
games (at the beginning) went on to report more acts of prosocial behavior (in the end). The
interviews took place 3-4 months apart, so it looks like playing prosocial video games shows an
increase in prosocial behavior over time.
In the end, Dewar puts together multiple sources of research that always concluded with
kids expressing more prosocial behavior after playing positive games. Its still hard when one
considers each child's experiences growing up, but the results remained consistent over the large
amount of children interviewed. Its nice to see that video games can have more than a negative
impact on our minds.
I think these articles answer my question by explaining desensitization. They are saying
that video games are altering our view through desensitization, but there is a lot of other factors

which include different violent media such as movies, cartoons, ect. The three main internal
states thoughts, feelings, and arousal can be influenced by video games which is one thing that
can lead to aggressive behavior. There are also short term effects that are presented while playing
the video game, and then this turns into long term effects that are just hypothesis. Video games
affect our behavior, thinking, and development, but its not all negative. The important thing is to
remember balance which levels out the violence in video games. The morals we learn from
growing up can make it so our minds arent significantly influenced while playing video games.
The longer someone is exposed to these violent elements, it may outweigh the passive
experiences learned throughout life. So there is definitely a balance that needs to be maintained.
From my personal experiences and the research that Ive found, I believe that video
games can have a positive and negative effect on our behavior. Through playing video games I
have learned to become more patient, creative and to explore outside of what I already know in
the real world. There are also games that Ive played for over a decade that have made me more
irritable, and I feel myself having a lot more violent thoughts as I get older. I also don't feel as
much sympathy as I used to, and notice myself being a lot more harsh. Also, Ive never been a
social person, and sitting at home playing video games alone didnt help that over the years. This
isnt the case for everyone though. Video games can be extremely social if you choose to play
with friends or other people online. The most crucial thing to remember is balance. If people are
going to playing these games for years or even decades, they need to maintain balance.

Sources

Kooijmans, Thomas A. "Effects of Video Games on Aggressive Thoughts and Behaviors During
Development." .personalityresearch. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
<http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/kooijmans.html>.

Brockmyer, Jeanne Funk. "Playing Violent Video Games and Desensitization to Violence." Child
and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. Elsevier Inc. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
<http://www.childpsych.theclinics.com/article/S1056-4993(14)00087-X/abstract>.

Dewar, Gwen. "The Social Effects of Video Games: Games That Promote Helpfulness."
Parenting Science. Gwen Dewar, Ph.D. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.parentingscience.com/effects-of-video-games-prosocial.html>.