The DOI matches its Crossref record; 13 of the 13 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Video Games Do Affect Social Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Effects of Violent and Prosocial Video Game Play
Abstract
Whether video game play affects social behavior is a topic of debate. Many argue that aggression and helping are affected by video game play, whereas this stance is disputed by others. The present research provides a meta-analytical test of the idea that depending on their content, video games do affect social outcomes. Data from 98 independent studies with 36,965 participants revealed that for both violent video games and prosocial video games, there was a significant association with social outcomes. Whereas violent video games increase aggression and aggression-related variables and decrease prosocial outcomes, prosocial video games have the opposite effects. These effects were reliable across experimental, correlational, and longitudinal studies, indicating that video game exposure causally affects social outcomes and that there are both short- and long-term effects.
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Cites
Borenstein, M., Hedges, L. V., Higgins, J. P. T., & Rothstein, H. R. (2009) · doi:10.1002/9780470743386 · Cited by 14,225
Borenstein, M., Hedges, L. V., Higgins, J. P. T., & Rothstein, H. R. (2021) · doi:10.1002/9781119558378 · Cited by 9,799
Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2002) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135231 · Cited by 3,915
Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, N., Swing, E. L., Bushman, B. J., Sakamoto, A., Rothstein, H. R., & Saleem, M. (2010) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0018251 · Cited by 2,048
Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life.
Anderson, C. A., & Dill, K. E. (2000) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.78.4.772 · Cited by 1,778
Hunter, J. E., & Schmidt, F. L. (2000) · International Journal of Selection and Assessment · doi:10.1111/1468-2389.00156 · Cited by 833 · cited 1×
“Heterogeneity tests indicated that there was indeed considerable heterogeneity across studies.1 In this case, the application of a fixed-effects model is not appropriate (e.g., Hunter & Schmidt, 2000).”
MethodGentile, D. A., Anderson, C. A., Yukawa, S., Ihori, N., Saleem, M., Ming, L. K., Shibuya, A., Liau, A. K., Khoo, A., Bushman, B. J., et al. (2009) · Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin · doi:10.1177/0146167209333045 · Cited by 731 · cited 2×
“In fact, it has been shown that playing a prosocial (relative to a neutral) video game increases helping (Gentile et al., 2009) and decreases aggression (Greitemeyer, Agthe, Turner, & Gschwendtner, 2012).”
BackgroundFerguson, C. J., & Kilburn, J. (2010) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/a0018566 · Cited by 311
It's Okay to Shoot a Character: Moral Disengagement in Violent Video Games
Hartmann, T., & Vorderer, P. (2010) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01459.x · Cited by 251
Internet use and video gaming predict problem behavior in early adolescence
Holtz, P., & Appel, M. (2011) · Journal of Adolescence · doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2010.02.004 · Cited by 227
Cited by
Meier, A., & Reinecke, L. (2021) · Communication Research · doi:10.1177/0093650220958224 · Cited by 534
Metaanalysis of the relationship between violent video game play and physical aggression over time
Prescott, A. T., Sargent, J. D., & Hull, J. G. (2018) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1611617114 · Cited by 303
Are Social Media Ruining Our Lives? A Review of Meta-Analytic Evidence
Appel, M., Marker, C., & Gnambs, T. (2020) · Review of General Psychology · doi:10.1177/1089268019880891 · Cited by 290
When and How Video Games Can Be Good: A Review of the Positive Effects of Video Games on Well-Being
Halbrook, Y. J., O’Donnell, A. T., & Msetfi, R. M. (2019) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/1745691619863807 · Cited by 263
“(2014) demonstrated the positive effects of video games on four particular types of well-being: cognitive, motivational, emotional, and social; Greitemeyer and Mügge (2014) examined social outcomes only; Jones et al.”
BackgroundProblematic gaming behaviour and health-related outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Männikkö, N., Ruotsalainen, H., Miettunen, J., Pontes, H. M., & Kääriäinen, M. (2020) · Journal of Health Psychology · doi:10.1177/1359105317740414 · Cited by 243
Metadata
- Authors
- Greitemeyer, T., & Mügge, D. O.
- Venue
- Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-01-23
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 578-589
- ISSN
- 0146-1672 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-7433
- OpenAlex
- W2124666103
- Cited by
- 636
- References
- 13
- FWCI
- 82.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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- Greitemeyer, T., & Mügge, D. O. (2014). Video Games Do Affect Social Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Effects of Violent and Prosocial Video Game Play. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213520459
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
