TY - JOUR

T1 - Denying humanness to others

T2 - a newly discovered mechanism by which violent video games increase aggressive behavior

AU - Greitemeyer, Tobias

AU - McLatchie, Neil Marvin

PY - 2011/5

Y1 - 2011/5

N2 - Past research has provided abundant evidence that playing violent video games increases aggressive behavior. So far, these effects have been explained mainly as the result of priming existing knowledge structures. The research reported here examined the role of denying humanness to other people in accounting for the effect that playing a violent video game has on aggressive behavior. In two experiments, we found that playing violent video games increased dehumanization, which in turn evoked aggressive behavior. Thus, it appears that video-game-induced aggressive behavior is triggered when victimizers perceive the victim to be less human.

AB - Past research has provided abundant evidence that playing violent video games increases aggressive behavior. So far, these effects have been explained mainly as the result of priming existing knowledge structures. The research reported here examined the role of denying humanness to other people in accounting for the effect that playing a violent video game has on aggressive behavior. In two experiments, we found that playing violent video games increased dehumanization, which in turn evoked aggressive behavior. Thus, it appears that video-game-induced aggressive behavior is triggered when victimizers perceive the victim to be less human.

KW - video games

KW - dehumanization

KW - aggressive behavior

KW - media effects

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79955764158&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0956797611403320

DO - 10.1177/0956797611403320

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:79955764158

VL - 22

SP - 659

EP - 665

JO - Psychological Science

JF - Psychological Science

SN - 0956-7976

IS - 5

ER -