| Abstract: | Americans are increasingly concerned about video games, presumably due to the amount and graphicness of violence they contain. Social Cognitive Theory suggests that people are more likely to imitate characters they see as attractive or similar to self. To date, however, little research has examined attributes of violent characters in video games related to this issue. This content analysis examined 10 minutes of play from 60 of the most popular video games. Adapting the coding scheme from the National Television Violence Study (Smith et al., 1998 Smith, S. L., Wilson, B. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Potter, W. J., Colvin, C. M. and Donnerstein, E. 1998. National Television Violence Study: Vol. 3. Violence in television programming overall: University of California, Santa Barbara study, 5–220. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Google Scholar]; Wilson et al., 1997 Wilson, B. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Potter, W. J., Donnerstein, E.Smith, S. L. 1997. National Television Violence Study: Vol. 1. Violence in television programming overall: University of California, Santa Barbara study, 3–268. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Google Scholar], 1998 Wilson, B. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Potter, W. J., Donnerstein, E.Smith, S. L. 1998. National Television Violence Study: Vol. 2. Violence in television programming overall: University of California, Santa Barbara, 3–204. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Google Scholar]), various demographic and contextual features of violent characters and violent interactions were assessed. The results show that violent game characters have attributes that are likely to increase the extent to which some players perceive them as attractive and similar. Moreover, these violent characters engage in aggression that is presented as justified or graphic. |
