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Type | Essay |
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Pleasurable Gratifications and Aversive Costs of Virtual Violence
Discussion
Justification Results partly confirm H1. If a video game frames virtual violence as justified, players do feel less guilty and have fewer negative emotions than if the game frames the action as unjustified (though justification seems to have no effect on enjoyment). Contemporary violent video games often provide narratives that frame users’ actions as justified (Smith, 2006). Based on video game narratives, players often support a just cause and thus act morally, by saving the world, restoring humanity, and fighting the forces of evil. The results of the experiment support the view that these types of narrative cues trigger moral disengagement when players enact virtual aggression against quasi-social characters. Consequently, players may avoid or reduce unpleasant outcomes associated with norm-violating aggression such as negative affect.
However, in this experiment, justification did not affect enjoyment. Justification of virtual violence, as represented in the first-person shooter, may not influence enjoyment directly (see Zillmann, 2000, for a different opinion). According to our theoretical approach, justification directly suppresses the aversive feelings that violating moral standards causes, but it is not considered to immediately increase enjoyment. Rather, justification may influence enjoyment in an indirect way: Neg- ative affect and guilt that result from unjustified actions probably undermine game enjoyment. Justification seems to diminish such aversive states. The present experi- ment supported this view, finding guilt to be negatively correlated with enjoyment. Future research may discover that a stronger effect of justification on guilt and negative feelings may in turn produce significant differences in game enjoyment.
Portrayal of consequences H2 argued that if a violent video game does not portray the consequences of virtual violence (or if it distorts them), players would feel less guilty, have fewer negative emotions, and enjoy game play more than if the game portrays the consequences of
110 Journal of Communication 60 (2010) 94–119 © 2010 International Communication Association
violent actions. Results concerning H2 are mixed. Contrary to H2, whether or not the game portrayed consequences of virtual violence had no effect on players’ reports of guilt, negative affect, and enjoyment. That is, the bloodshed, screams, and dying sequence of shot opponents seemed to have no impact on the playing experience whatsoever. The null effects should be interpreted carefully, as the treatment-check indicates a failed manipulation, though. However, if the manipulation only led to unconscious perceptual processes (see ‘‘perceived mayhem,’’ below), subjects may not have been able to report the effects of the manipulation even if it had succeeded.
Nevertheless, a failed manipulation of the consequences portrayed is a plausible explanation of the null effects. For example, because users had the ability to shoot opponents from a substantial distance, the visibility of displayed bloodshed and victim suffering may have been low. The morally disengaging effect of long-distance weapons, previously discussed in literature (e.g., Todd, 2001), may have resulted in an ineffective manipulation.
Perceived mayhem the quasi-experimental examination of portrayed consequences indicated that users who perceived greater mayhem in the game felt more guilty and had more negative affect than users who perceived less mayhem. The effect could be a methodological artifact of the joint ex-postquestionnaire assessment of perceived mayhem, guilt, and negative affect (e.g., an effect of social desirability). However, it also seems plausible that a description of the game play as ‘‘much mayhem’’ reflects one’s moral judgment. In contrast to players that perceived ‘‘no or less mayhem,’’ users that reported great mayhem could have perceived the violent game play as having greater moral importance which would explain why they experienced more guilt and negative affect. Consequently, negative affect was strongest for players that perceived much mayhem and fought for an unjust reason.
Enjoyment Interestingly, differences in perceived mayhem did not result in different levels of enjoyment, just as the manipulation of portrayed consequences and the justification of users’ actions revealed no effect on enjoyment. One explanation is that more mayhem, harsher consequences, and unjust norm-violating actions may promote both gratifications and costs (Raney, 2004). In violent video games, users are causal agents. Although causing more mayhem to quasi-social characters or breaking norms by unjust behavior seems to trigger higher costs (i.e., feeling of guilt, negative affect), it may enhance users’ pleasurable experiences of being effective (Klimmt & Hartmann, 2006) and powerful as well. Producing mayhem may also foster excitement. Thus, in this study, the costs that resulted from a greater perception of troublesome consequences could have been balanced by enhanced gratifications.
Pleasurable gratifications and aversive costs of virtual violence may also explain the justification × consequences interaction effect obtained in the analyses (Figure 1). Subjects who had some reason to feel they had done something wrong (because the
Journal of Communication 60 (2010) 94–119 © 2010 International Communication Association 111
Moral Disengagement T. Hartmann & P. Vorderer
action was either unjustified or resulted in harsh consequences) and that could still morally disengage at the same time (because the action was either justified or did not result in harsh consequences) reported the greatest enjoyment. Obviously, under these conditions, pleasurable gratifications (e.g., excitement that may partly result from norm-violation, as well as feelings to be effective and powerful) and aversive costs (negative affect resulting from violation of moral standards) reached a ratio that best suited overall enjoyment. Targeting quasi-social characters may be particularly thrilling for users, especially if some opportunity to morally disengage exists. In contrast, a video game that supports too much moral disengagement (e.g., no consequences, justified actions) may not be thrilling enough to be enjoyable, whereas a game that makes it too hard to disengage (e.g., harsh consequences, no justification) may trigger too much negative affect. Certainly, this interpretation is hypothetical and needs further examination. Future research may connect the ideas presented here to related approaches, for example, disposition-based theories of humor (e.g., Zillmann, 2000), which shows that malicious Schadenfreude (while watching comedy) is ‘‘exceedingly high when all ingredients of good comedy [are] present: despised protagonists, their victimization, and humor cues that set the audience free to enjoy these characters’ demise.’’ (p. 49). In sum, the formation of enjoyment in violent games and its interrelation with negative affect seems complex. Future studies should apply finer distinctions of pleasurable gratifications versus costly norm-violations to explain the overall enjoyment of violent games.
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