The fun of dying: Physiological responses to violent game events

1. THE CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE AND INNOVATION RESEARCH H E L S I N K I S C H O O L O F E C O N O M I C S The fun of dying: Physiological responses to violent game events Niklas Ravaja, Ph.D. Helsinki School of Economics, Finland email: ravaja@hse.fi

2. Background • Ravaja, N., Turpeinen, M., Saari, T., Puttonen, S., & Keltikangas-Järvinen, L. (2008). The psychophysiology of James Bond: Phasic emotional responses to violent video game events. Emotion, 8, 114-120. (http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=search.displayRecord&uid=2008-01232-011) • “Gamers Get Their Kicks From Dying,” an article by Clive Thompson in Wired (http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2008/03/gamesfrontiers_0310) • “The Joy of Sucking,” an article by Clive Thompson in Wired (http://www.wired.com/gaming/gamingreviews/commentary/games/2006/07/71386) What a death scene looks like on Halo 3.

3. Background • We know very little about phasic emotional responses elicited by violent video game events, although they might mediate the potential harmful effects of violent games • Self-report is an inadequate method to study this issue • The aim was to examine phasic emotion-related psychophysiological responses to violent events in a first-person shooter (FPS) game.

4. Hypotheses Hypothesis 1a: Given that wounding or killing an opponent represents a victory and a success in the game (and in a real gun fight), these events might elicit positively valenced arousal. Hypothesis 1b: The deeply ingrained moral code says that injuring or killing another human being is wrong, and symbolic aggression enacted by the player may elicit anxiety. Therefore, an alternative hypothesis would be that wounding or killing an opponent would elicit negatively valenced arousal (i.e., anxiety). Hypothesis 2: When compared with low Psychoticism scorers, high Psychoticism individuals would exhibit a more positive, or less negative, emotional response to wounding and killing an opponent. Hypothesis 3a: Wounding or killing of the player’s character by the opponent may be a threatening event and represents a failure in the game. Therefore, these events would be expected to elicit negatively valenced emotions (i.e., anxiety, anger, or depressed affect). Hypothesis 3b Although at first counterintuitive, it is also possible that these events elicit positively valenced high-arousal emotion (see Ravaja, Saari, Salminen, et al., 2006; Ravaja et al., 2005).

5. Methods Participants • Participants were 36 (25 male and 11 female) Finnish undergraduates, who ranged from 20 to 30 years of age. Game • James Bond 007: NightFire (Electronic Arts Inc.) and Super Monkey Ball 2 (Sega Corporation; nonviolent control condition). The games were played with the Nintendo GameCube and presented on a screen (image size: 114 cm [width]  85 cm [height]).

6. Methods Physiological measures • Facial electromyography (EMG) • Provides a direct measure of the electrical activity associated with facial muscle contractions (an important form of emotional expression) • Zygomaticus major (cheek) muscle area • An index of Positive Affect (PA) • Orbicularis oculi (periocular) muscle area • An index of PA • Corrugator supercilii (brow) muscle area • An index of Negative Affect (NA) • Electrodermal activity (EDA) • The primary psychophysiological index of arousal • As people experience arousal their sympathetic nervous system is activated, resulting in increased sweat gland activity and skin conductance

7. Dimensional Model of Emotion

8. Methods Psychoticism • Psychoticism as a personality trait was measured with the Psychoticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised, Short Form (Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985).

9. Methods Game Events • The exact onset times of predefined game events were determined by examining the played games, frame by frame, using V-ToolsPro 2.20 software. • We scored four different game events: • The player’s character (James Bond) wounded an opponent character (NPC; Opponent Wounded) • The player’s character (James Bond) killed an opponent character (NPC; Opponent Killed) • The player’s character (James Bond) was wounded by an opponent character (NPC; Bond Wounded) • The player’s character (James Bond) was killed by an opponent character (NPC; Bond Killed)

10. Methods Data Analysis • Mean values for the psychophysiological measures were derived for one 1-s epoch before each event (Second 1) and for six 1-s epochs after event onset (Seconds 2 to 7). The data were analyzed by the Linear Mixed Models procedure in SPSS with restricted maximum likelihood estimation and a first-order autoregressive covariance structure for the residuals. • Event-related changes in physiological activity were tested using the following orthogonal contrasts: • Second 1 vs. Seconds 2 to 7 (Contrast 1) • Picking a Banana vs. Opponent Wounded × Second 1 vs. Seconds 2 to 7 (Contrast 2) • Picking a Banana vs. Opponent Killed × Second 1 vs. Seconds 2 to 7 (Contrast 3) • Low Psychoticism vs. High Psychoticism × Second 1 vs. Seconds 2 to 7 (Contrast 4)

11. Results I Event: Bond Killed Event: Opponent Killed

12. Results II Event: Opponent Killed Event: Bond Killed

13. Results III Event: Opponent Killed Event: Bond Killed

14. Results IV • Moderating effect of Psychoticism Contrast 4 indicated that the decrease in both zygomatic and orbicularis oculi EMG activity elicited by the Opponent Killed event was less pronounced among high Psychoticism scorers compared to low Psychoticism scorers, ps = .005 and .003, respectively.

15. Conclusions • Instead of joy resulting from victory and success, wounding and killing the opponent may elicit anxiety, anger, or both. • Personality of the player influences the emotional responses to violence. • Although the wounding and death of the player’s own character are not likely to elicit solely joy, they appear to increase some aspects of positive emotion.