It's Okay to Shoot a Character: Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games

“Also, according to Mar and Macrae (2006), ‘‘[Humans] routinely view quite abstract nonliving representations as if they were intentional agents’’ (p. 110, see also ‘‘Ethopoeia’’ in Nass & Moon, 2000).”

“…15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 868 Journal of Communication 59 (2009) 865–890 © 2009 International Communication Association T. Hartmann & P. Vorderer Moral Disengagement neglect of a character’s moral status and human essence (Haslam, 2006).”

“Hartmann and Vorderer 7 posited that shooting opponents in the game implies the physical removal of objects from the game rather than destruction of humans.”

“might disengage players emotionally and trigger curiosity to experiment with the consequences [17].”

“Players ’ feelings about their character ’ s role are guided by the character ’ s disposition (Vick, 2007) and the narrative framing of actions like violence and aggression against enemies (Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010).”

“Yet, past research (Hartmann and Vorderer, 2010; Hartmann et al., 2010; Lin, 2011; Weaver and Lewis, 2012; Grizzard et al., 2014, 2017; Mahood and Hanus, 2017) that finds a relationship between such actions and guilt suggests that some players (a) perceive their virtual actions to be morally consequential, and (b) att…”

“Research has shown that moral disengagement occurs with various entertainment offerings such as videogames (e.g., Hartmann and Vorderer 2010), films (Tsay-Vogel and Krakowiak 2016), and written narratives (Krakowiak and Tsay 2011; Tsay and Krakowiak 2011).”

“Further, feelings of guilt and negative affect in violent video games are reduced by framing the game as ‘just a game’ or by justifying the violence through familiarity with the game or through the narrative [55], thus how violent media is contextualized and interpreted seems to play an important role in understanding…”

“Hartmann and Vorderer found that justifications for immoral choice, such as violence for a just purpose or reminder of artificiality of consequences could alleviate feelings of guilt [59].”

“Other research has found previous gameplay experiences to be related to in-game behavior/experience such as players becoming morally disengaged in gameplay (Hartmann, Krakowiak, & Tsay-Vogel, 2014; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010; Lange, 2014).”

“While a television viewer might merely feel outraged at injustice, a player who is compelled by the game to commit an unjust act would be expected to feel guilty (Hartmann et al., 2010; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010).”

“First, research suggests that users tend to automatically perceive virtual characters in a social way, as if they were social beings worthy of proper moral treatment (Farrar, Krcmar, & McGloin, 2013; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010).”

“…and morality within gaming environments has been a focal point of research, revealing that gamers’ actions, when morally ambiguous or outright immoral, can spur feelings of guilt, with self-attribution acting as a pivotal mediator in this dynamic (Hartmann and Vorderer, 2010; Ahn et al., 2021).”

“Previous research with violent video games suggests moral disengagement in video game play supports enjoyment of the game (Hartmann and Vorderer, 2010) and other research suggest that violent video games were related to disinhibition and psychopathy traits (Kimmig et al.”

“Some previous research has shown that people behave more prosocially toward ingroup than outgroup virtual characters 11 ; however, no studies to date have examined attributions of specific emotions to characters.”

“examine whether strategies to downplay violence in a game and ethical considerations (see also moral disengagement theory (Hartmann and Vorderer, 2010)) are associated with aggression-related outcomes.”

“In other words, when the responsibility for the behavior is attributed to external factors rather than the actions of the player or the character, video game violence becomes manageable (Hartmann, Toz, & Brandon, 2010; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010).”

“…virtual violence, such as that depicted in video games, can be rendered enjoyable rather than aversive by the incorporation of moral disengagement cues, that serve to separate users’ harm-doing from their personal moral standards (Hartmann, Krakowiak, & Tsay-Vogel, 2014; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010).”

“Aggressive video gaming has been shown to lead to dehu-manization and moral disengagement (Bastian, Jetten & Radke, 2012; see also Fischer, Kastenmüller & Greitemeyer, 2010; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010; Konijn, Bijvank & Bushman, 2007).”

“Indeed, some research suggests that players may actively pursue strategies of moral disengagement when they play in order to be more competitive or maintain feelings of enjoyment (Hartmann, 2011; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010; Klimmt, Schmid, Nosper, Hartmann & Vorderer, 2006).”

“…a great deal of attention in recent years, yet despite the popularity of scholarly research on this topic, few studies have addressed bioethical issues directly (Sicart, 2005, 2009, 2009; Luck, 2008; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010; Reynolds, 2002; Schulzke, 2009, 2010a, 2010b; Cogburn & Silcox, 2009).”

“example, destroying or harming virtual enemies can elicit negative feelings of distress and guilt [25].”

“The discussions in research as well as in public discourse concerning the need to restrict videogames are mostly aimed at whether they have harmful effects or not (Gentile and Anderson 2003; Hartmann and Vorderer 2010; Hargrave and Livingstone 2009).”

“While narratives have been investigated in violent video games (Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010; Lee, Park, Jin, & Kang, 2005; Schneider, Lang, Shin, & Bradley, 2004; B. P. Smith & Vorderer, 2006; S. L. Smith, Lachlan, & Tamborini, 2003), narratives also offer a pathway for change of health behaviors…”

“…or genre-conventionally presumed.2 This is equally true of human-like non-playable characters (NPCs) in video games, which will be standardly interpreted as representations of people as experienced in the real world (evidence for this claim is summarized by Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010, pp. 95–96).”

“Hartmann and Vorderer [26] show that within a violent video game, fighting for a just purpose, fitting violence into established order, and establishing the situation as “just a game” increase enjoyment and decrease guilt.”

“…typically confront the player with a number of different characters, permanently changing sensory impressions as well as varying moral conflicts, mechanisms of disengagement should be conceived as flexible constructs that may continuously reshape (Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010; Klimmt et al., 2008).”

“This confusion around the justifiability of actions can lead to moral disengagement on the part of the player if characters who were designed to be interacted with as social entities in the game are no longer viewed as such, and thus no longer fit into the player's “scope of justice” [12].”

“Hartmann and Vorderer (2010) reject the view that gamers do not see their opponents in these games as social beings.”

“Experimental research (Hartmann and Vorderer 2010, Krakowiak and Tsay 2011, Shafer and Raney 2012) has shown that moral disengagement is all the more likely to occur if strategies of moral disengagement are cued by the text to guide information processing.”

“Put another way, unpleasant violence refers to portrayals of violence that simultaneously lack justification (Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010), sanitation (Weaver & Wilson, 2009), and dehumanization (Lin, 2011).”

“The available studies, however, indicate that FPS games can indeed have short-term effects on the perception of enemy stereotypes (Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010; Klimmt et al., 2010) and that the use of military-themed games and attitudes towards the military are associated (Penney, 2008).”

“Several scholars re fl ect on moral disengagement in video games (Sicart 2009; Hartmann and Vorderer 2010; Gabbiadini et al. 2014).”

“For example, familiarity with the game has been previously found to influence affective outcomes (Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010).”

“” Hartmann and Vorderer (2010), for instance, explore moral disengagement in violent video games including monitoring guilt in subjects playing Half-Life 2 (2004).”

“Most studies that examined moral decisions in video games have focused on the moral disengagement strategies that players or game developers utilized to minimize moral discomfort from performing immoral behaviors (Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010; Klimmt et al., 2006).”

“Finally, individuals may disre-gard or trivialize the consequences of their actions (Eriksson & Svensson, 2016; Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010; Kish-Gephart et al., 2014).”

“…competing evidence suggests that gamers knowingly engage in anti-social acts in virtual worlds, ascribing their witnessed actions to being “mere fantasy” or as justified by the game’s narrative – thoughts and feelings often associated with moral disengagement processes (Hartmann & Vorderer, 2010).”

“Thus, “the game creates a situation that automatically leads to cognitive disengagement from inner moral standards” (Hartmann and Vorderer 2010, p.98), which would normally bar players from aggressing against real and virtual beings.”

“In contrast, Hartmann and Vorderer (2010) found that altering the target of a first-person shooter game from human to zombie-like had no effect on moral disengagement.”

“A particularly interesting topic is whether participants with preferences for violent game dynamics also enjoy violence in real life or not, and whether they employ moral disengagement when playing games (as suggested in [61]).”

“These contrasting approaches have evolved from Hochschild’s (1983) seminal work, with the major differences between them being the ‘lens’ from which the world of emotional labour is viewed (Grandey et al.”

“On one hand, some authors have focused on the study of its antisocial effects, the analysis of violence, and have indicated that video games tend to reproduce gender and ethnic stereotypes just as the same way as traditional media [5] [18]”

“Most players cannot regard games as judgment-free zones [4] and even experience discomfort, leading to moral disengagement [5], reducing internal condemnation for actions that violate real-world morals.”

“However, some people do report en-joyment of violent media content (e.g., Hartmann and Klimmt 2006; Hoffner and Levine 2005; Jansz 2005; Lyness 1951; Mares and Sun 2010), and an emerging body of research is examining why (Hartmann and Vorderer 2010).”

“VVGs also frequently employ elements of moral disengagement, such as justification of violence, distortions of consequences, and euphemistic labeling, which can influence players.(26,27) For example, adolescents with recent exposure to Grand Theft Auto IV demonstrated increased moral disengagement, as indicated by inc…”