It's Okay to Shoot a Character: Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games
Open accessAbstract
What makes virtual violence enjoyable rather than aversive? Two 2×2 experiments tested the assumption that moral disengagement cues provided by a violent video game's narrative and game play lessen users' guilt and negative affect, which would otherwise undermine players' enjoyment of the game. Experiment 1 found that users' familiarity with the violent game reduced guilt and negative affect, and enhanced enjoyment, whereas opponents' nonhuman outer appearance and blameworthiness had no effect. Experiment 2 found that fighting for a just purpose, perceiving less mayhem, and framing the overall situation as “just a game” or “just an experiment” reduced guilt and negative affect, whereas the distorted portrayal of consequences did not. Effects on game enjoyment were mixed and suggest that moral disengagement cues may both foster and diminish game enjoyment.
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Research by Heberlein and Adolphs, Morrison and Ziemke, and Yee et al. points to players perceiving game characters not as objects but as social entities with morality.
“This is evidenced by the research of Heberlein and Adolphs [22], Morrison and Ziemke [34], Yee et al. [48] pointing to the fact that players would perceive game characters not as objects but as social entities with morality.”
From “I Don’t Want To Shoot The Android”: Players Translate Real-Life Moral Intuitions to In-Game Decisions in Detroit: Become Human (2022) · cites this paper as [22]
In the passage labeled Abstract (page not provided), Hartmann and Vorderer argue that players perceive game characters as quasi-social rather than simply as objects, drawing on the named research among other studies. They say such characters potentially have moral status; the claim presents that moral status more definitively than the source does. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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- Authors
- Hartmann, T., & Vorderer, P.
- Affiliations
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- ORCID
- Hartmann, Tilo
- Venue
- Journal of Communication
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2010-03
- Volume
- 60
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 94-119
- ISSN
- 0021-9916 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2466
- OpenAlex
- W2131583517
- Semantic Scholar
- da821a39ea4bbbb7a2206d8bf3f24f6f49c80b94
- Cited by
- 251
- References
- 96
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 49.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Communication (publishedVersion)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- MADOC (University of Mannheim) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Media Influence and Health
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Keywords
- moral disengagement, violent video games, game enjoyment, guilt, negative affect, game narrative, culpability, perceived consequences
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