Bastian et al (2012)

Cyber-dehumanisation: Violent Video Game Play Diminishes our Humanity

KEY - Evaluative Points

AIMS

> To investigate to what extent video games affected participants' perception of their own humanity as well as that of other players.

STUDY 1 PROCEDURE

> Mortal Kombat (aggressive game) and Top Spin Tennis (non-aggressive) were used.

> 106 undergraduates, 74 women and 32 men aged between 17 and 34.

> Partcipants were randomly assigned to either condition (one of the games).

> Each 2 player game was played for approximately 15 minutes with a wall between the players to avoid them being able to see eachother.

> They were then given a questionnaire to complete which included questions in regards to how enjoyable they found the game, as well as frustrating it was.These were laid out in the form of Likert scales (1-7). They were also asked to access their humanness on a different scale.

STUDY 1 RESULTS

> Participants in both games found them games equally frustrating.

> Mortal Kombat was rated to be the most enjoyable of the two and signficantly more exciting.

> The mean score for self-humanity was lower in the violent video game (3.74) compared to the non-violent video game (4.35).

> The mean score for others' humanity was…