Do Violent Video Games Reduce Aggression? The Roles of Prosociality and Cooperation

ABSTRACT Video games have become an integral part of people’s daily life. Though detrimental outcomes of negative game factors have been demonstrated across previous studies, the effects of prevalently-exist positive game factors, for example, prosociality and cooperation, remain unclear. This study examined the effects of positive game factors in violent video games on aggressive behavior by exploring prosociality and cooperation. Based on the General Learning Model, Experiment 1 examined the effect of prosociality on aggressive behavior and the mediating role of perceived violence in the game. Experiment 2 examined the relation between cooperation in violent video games and aggressive behavior, the mediating role of hostile interpretation bias, and the moderating role of the game result. The results of Experiment 1 showed that prosociality did not influence aggressive behavior. The results of Experiment 2 showed that cooperation decreased aggressive behavior. Additionally, Experiment 2 also found that the hostile interpretation bias mediated the relation between cooperation and aggressive behavior, and win/lose results moderate the relationship between cooperation and aggressive behavior. Considering the questions raised by post hoc sensitivity analysis, future studies could investigate the effects of positive game factors in violent video games on aggressive behavior with a larger sample size.