Violent gaming and player aggression: Exploring the effects of socio-psychological and technology influences

ABSTRACT

Given the high levels of violence in South Africa, there is widespread concern among the public that video game violence may be increasing the risk of aggression in players and consequently leading to violence. Employing the General Aggression Model (GAM), this study set out to examine the influence of socio-psychological factors such as excessive gaming and pathological gaming, and technology factors such as interactive richness on player aggression. The research model was tested using survey data collected from 101 university students. Regression analysis indicates that only pathological gaming explains a small variance in player aggression. Contrary to prior studies that make strong claims that violent video game playing leads to aggressive behaviour, these factors made only a negligible contribution to predicting player aggression in this study. Future research should focus on testing multiple pathways that culminates into player aggression. Violent gaming technologies may not be influencing aggressive behaviour as much as stimulating pre-aggressive individuals already predisposed by other socio-psychological factors. Future research should test the above factors with more contextual based socio-psychological factors, within the individual aggressor's family and close-knit social environment. Intervention and prevention programs may be better served by insights into the aggressor's personal, family, and social context rather than technology related behaviours.

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