Title
Violent video game effects on salivary cortisol, arousal, and aggressive thoughts in children.
Abstract
An experiment investigated the effects of violent content in video games on two physiological indicators of the fight-or-flight response (cortisol and cardiovascular changes) and on accessibility of aggressive thoughts in children. Participants played a randomly assigned violent or nonviolent video game, rated the game on several dimensions, and did a word completion task. Results showed that the violent video game increased cortisol and (for boys) cardiovascular arousal (relative to baseline) more than did the equally exciting nonviolent game. The violent game also increased the accessibility of aggressive thoughts. The cortisol findings in particular suggest that playing a violent video game may activate the sympathetic nervous system and elicit a fight-or-flight type response in children. Theoretical implications and future research are discussed.
Year
DOI
Venue
2017
10.1016/j.chb.2016.12.045
Computers in Human Behavior
Keywords
Field
DocType
Media violence,Violent video games,Cortisol,Aggressive cognition,SNS,VVG
Social psychology,Developmental psychology,Arousal,Psychology
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
70
C
0747-5632
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.39
0
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Douglas A Gentile1103.67
Patrick K. Bender210.39
Craig A. Anderson3132.34