The fun of dying: Physiological responses to violent game events

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The fun of dying Physiological responses to
violent game events
THE CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE AND INNOVATION
RESEARCH H E L S I N K I S C H O O L O F
E C O N O M I C S

• Niklas Ravaja, Ph.D.
• Helsinki School of Economics, Finland
• email ravaja_at_hse.fi

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Background

• Ravaja, N., Turpeinen, M., Saari, T., Puttonen,
  S., Keltikangas-Järvinen, L. (2008). The
  psychophysiology of James Bond Phasic emotional
  responses to violent video game events. Emotion,
  8, 114-120. (http//psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fas
  earch.displayRecorduid2008-01232-011)
• Gamers Get Their Kicks From Dying, an article
  by Clive Thompson in Wired (http//www.wired.com/g
  aming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2008/03/games
  frontiers_0310)
• The Joy of Sucking, an article by Clive
  Thompson in Wired (http//www.wired.com/gaming/gam
  ingreviews/commentary/games/2006/07/71386)

What a death scene looks like on Halo 3.
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Background

• We know very little about phasic emotional
  responses elicited by violent video game events,
  although they might mediate the potential harmful
  effects of violent games
• Self-report is an inadequate method to study this
  issue
• The aim was to examine phasic emotion-related
  psychophysiological responses to violent events
  in a first-person shooter (FPS) game.

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Hypotheses

• Hypothesis 1a
• Given that wounding or killing an opponent
  represents a victory and a success in the game
  (and in a real gun fight), these events might
  elicit positively valenced arousal.
• Hypothesis 1b
• The deeply ingrained moral code says that
  injuring or killing another human being is wrong,
  and symbolic aggression enacted by the player may
  elicit anxiety. Therefore, an alternative
  hypothesis would be that wounding or killing an
  opponent would elicit negatively valenced arousal
  (i.e., anxiety).
• Hypothesis 2
• When compared with low Psychoticism scorers,
  high Psychoticism individuals would exhibit a
  more positive, or less negative, emotional
  response to wounding and killing an opponent.
• Hypothesis 3a
• Wounding or killing of the players character by
  the opponent may be a threatening event and
  represents a failure in the game. Therefore,
  these events would be expected to elicit
  negatively valenced emotions (i.e., anxiety,
  anger, or depressed affect).
• Hypothesis 3b
• Although at first counterintuitive, it is also
  possible that these events elicit positively
  valenced high-arousal emotion (see Ravaja, Saari,
  Salminen, et al., 2006 Ravaja et al., 2005).

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Methods

• Participants
• Participants were 36 (25 male and 11 female)
  Finnish undergraduates, who ranged from 20 to 30
  years of age.
• Game
• James Bond 007 NightFire (Electronic Arts Inc.)
  and Super Monkey Ball 2 (Sega Corporation
  nonviolent control condition). The games were
  played with the Nintendo GameCube and presented
  on a screen (image size 114 cm width ? 85 cm
  height).

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Methods

• Physiological measures
• Facial electromyography (EMG)
• Provides a direct measure of the electrical
  activity associated with facial muscle
  contractions (an important form of emotional
  expression)
• Zygomaticus major (cheek) muscle area
• An index of Positive Affect (PA)
• Orbicularis oculi (periocular) muscle area
• An index of PA
• Corrugator supercilii (brow) muscle area
• An index of Negative Affect (NA)
• Electrodermal activity (EDA)
• The primary psychophysiological index of arousal
• As people experience arousal their sympathetic
  nervous system is activated, resulting in
  increased sweat gland activity and skin
  conductance

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Dimensional Model of Emotion
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Methods

• Psychoticism
• Psychoticism as a personality trait was measured
  with the Psychoticism scale of the Eysenck
  Personality Questionnaire-Revised, Short Form
  (Eysenck, Eysenck, Barrett, 1985).

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Methods

• Game Events
• The exact onset times of predefined game events
  were determined by examining the played games,
  frame by frame, using V-ToolsPro 2.20 software.
• We scored four different game events
• The players character (James Bond) wounded an
  opponent character (NPC Opponent Wounded)
• The players character (James Bond) killed an
  opponent character (NPC Opponent Killed)
• The players character (James Bond) was wounded
  by an opponent character (NPC Bond Wounded)
• The players character (James Bond) was killed by
  an opponent character (NPC Bond Killed)

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Methods

• Data Analysis
• Mean values for the psychophysiological measures
  were derived for one 1-s epoch before each event
  (Second 1) and for six 1-s epochs after event
  onset (Seconds 2 to 7). The data were analyzed by
  the Linear Mixed Models procedure in SPSS with
  restricted maximum likelihood estimation and a
  first-order autoregressive covariance structure
  for the residuals.
• Event-related changes in physiological activity
  were tested using the following orthogonal
  contrasts
• Second 1 vs. Seconds 2 to 7 (Contrast 1)
• Picking a Banana vs. Opponent Wounded Second 1
  vs. Seconds 2 to 7 (Contrast 2)
• Picking a Banana vs. Opponent Killed Second 1
  vs. Seconds 2 to 7 (Contrast 3)
• Low Psychoticism vs. High Psychoticism Second 1
  vs. Seconds 2 to 7 (Contrast 4)

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Results I
Event Bond Killed
Event Opponent Killed
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Results II
Event Opponent Killed
Event Bond Killed
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Results III
Event Opponent Killed
Event Bond Killed
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Results IV

• Moderating effect of Psychoticism
• Contrast 4 indicated that the decrease in both
  zygomatic and orbicularis oculi EMG activity
  elicited by the Opponent Killed event was less
  pronounced among high Psychoticism scorers
  compared to low Psychoticism scorers, ps .005
  and .003, respectively.

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Conclusions

• Instead of joy resulting from victory and
  success, wounding and killing the opponent may
  elicit anxiety, anger, or both.
• Personality of the player influences the
  emotional responses to violence.
• Although the wounding and death of the players
  own character are not likely to elicit solely
  joy, they appear to increase some aspects of
  positive emotion.