Bastian et al. (2011)

Specification

Bastian et al. (2011) Cyber-dehumanization: Violent video game play diminishes our humanity.

Outline

Aim(s)

To investigate whether playing violent video games has dehumanising consequences in relation to others and the self. The focus is on the self-perception of those who play violent video games and their perception of others.

Study 1 aimed to investigate the effects in a violent video game context where players were violent towards each other.

Study 2 aimed to investigate whether playing violently against computer avatars rather than human opponents had any effect on self-perceived humanity.

Procedure

Study 1

The game was Mortal Kombat where player play against each other. There were 106 participants, who were all undergraduates aged from 17 to 34 years old. The participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups.

Participants viewed the same screen but were separated by a wall so they couldn’t see each other. 52 of the participants played Mortal Kombat and 54 of the participants played Spin Tennis, a non-violent game. Participants were asked how much the enjoyed the game and how frustrating they found the game, both on a scale of 1 to 7.

Participants then had to rate themselves on eight human Nature items and rate their opponent on the same four items. When answering the items, they had to think about their experiences whilst playing the game. Four of the items were positive e.g. ‘I felt that I was emotional, like I was responsive and warm’ and four of the items were reversed e.g. ‘I felt like I lacked self-restraint, like an animal’.

Study 2

Participants played Call of Duty 2 with another player against a computer-generated avatar. The screen was split into two so the participants could see their own view point and their co-players viewpoint. There were 38 participants, all undergraduates, who were randomly assigned to one of two conditions, playing either Call of Duty or Spin Tennis. After they had played the game the participants were asked to rate how enjoyable and frustrating the game was, and to rate themselves and their co-player on their humanness using the same items as in study 1.

They had to think about their experience of playing the game as they answered the items on humanness. The self-esteem and mood of the participants were measured to ensure they did not affect the results. Mood was measured using the 20 item PANAS, and selfesteem was measured using the State Self-Esteem Scale.

Results

Study 1

After controlling for the effects of frustration, enjoyableness and gender it was found that there was a significant difference between the two groups on rating of both self-humanity and the humanity of the other player, with those who played the non-violent game perceiving both themselves and the other player as possessing more humanity.

Study 2

There was a significant difference in the participants’ perception of their own humanity, with those who played the violent video game seeing themselves as less human. There was no difference in the perception of the co-players’ humanity between those who played the violent game and those who played the non-violent game.

Conclusions

Study 1

It was concluded that the applying of violent video games does decrease the perceived humanity of both the player and other people that they are playing against.

Study 2

It was concluded that playing a violent video game reduces perception of our own humanity, even when playing with another person against a computer avatar. It was also concluded that playing violent video games does not make us feel bad or see ourselves in a more negative life, it only affects how human we feel.

Playing a violent video game with another person rather than against them does not affect how human we see out co-player.

Evaluation

There were 106 participants, who were all undergraduates aged from 17 to 34 years old. The study can only be generalised to undergraduate students so is limited in its generalisability.
All participants used the same rating scales so the study can be replicated to test for reliability. Participants were asked how much they enjoyed the game and how frustrating they found the game, both on a scale of 1 to 7. Participants then had to rate themselves on eight human nature items and rate their opponent on the same four items.
Playing a video game in a laboratory is not like real life so the participants may have acted or rated themselves differently if they were at home.
The participants rated their frustration using self-report data which may not be accurate.
Other factors could have caused the ratings in humanity such as personality and therefore the video game may not be the cause.
The study findings are supported by Greitemeyer and McLatchie (2011) who demonstrated that playing violent video games reduces the perceived humanness of real-life antagonists.

Past Paper Questions

State one aim from the contemporary study you have chosen. (1)

2 Markers

Explain one improvement that could be made to the sample selection in your chosen contemporary study. (2) October 2018
Explain one way the credibility of the data gathered could be improved in your chosen contemporary study. (2) October 2018

4 Markers

Explain two weaknesses of the contemporary study you have chosen. (4)
Explain two strengths of your chosen contemporary study in terms of reliability. (4) October 2018

12 Marker

Evaluate one contemporary study from learning theories. (12) June 2019

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