And How Does That Make You Feel?

Many media outlets, researchers and organisations claim that violent video games can cause aggression. The present study had participants play violent and non-violent video games and measured aggression after gameplay to investigate this claim. The susceptibility of a personality type called the Dark Triad (individuals high on psychopathic, narcissistic and machiavellian traits) and camera styles (First or Third-Person) of violent games were also investigated. Two-way ANOVAs were used for statistical analysis to compare participants. Participants who were highly correlated with the Dark Triad of personality had a statistically significant higher mean score of aggression. This increase in aggression remained irrespective of the game (violent or non-violent) played during the experiment. Violent video games and video game camera-style did not have any effect on aggression. The findings suggest that people highly correlated with the Dark Triad of personality are a high-risk group for aggression, but that this aggression is unrelated to video games.