School of Family Life, Brigham Young University, 2082 JFSB, Provo, UT 84602, USA.
J Youth Adolesc. 2012 May;41(5):636-49. doi: 10.1007/s10964-012-9742-2.
Exposure to media violence, including violent video gaming, can have a cognitive desensitization effect, lowering empathic concern for others in need. Since emerging adulthood offers increased opportunities to volunteer, strengthen relationships, and initiate new relationships, decreases in empathic concern and prosocial behavior may prove inhibitive to optimal development during this time. For these reasons, the current study investigated associations between violent video gaming, empathic responding, and prosocial behavior enacted toward strangers, friends, and family members. Participants consisted of 780 emerging adults (M age = 19.60, SD = 1.86, range = 18–29, 69% female, 69% Caucasian) from four universities in the United States. Results showed small to moderate effects between playing violent video gaming and lowered empathic concern for both males and females. In addition, lowered empathic concern partially mediated the pathways between violent video gaming and prosocial behavior toward all three targets (at the level of a trend for females), but was most strongly associated with lower prosocial behavior toward strangers. Discussion highlights how violent video gaming is associated with lower levels of prosocial behavior through the mechanism of decreased empathic concern, how this association can affect prosocial behavior differently across target, and finally what implications this might have for development during emerging adulthood.
接触媒体暴力，包括暴力视频游戏，可能会产生认知脱敏效应，降低对他人的共情关注。由于成年早期提供了更多的志愿机会、加强人际关系和开始新关系的机会，共情关注和亲社会行为的减少可能会在这段时间对最佳发展产生抑制作用。出于这些原因，本研究调查了暴力视频游戏、共情反应与对陌生人、朋友和家人的亲社会行为之间的关联。参与者包括来自美国四所大学的 780 名成年早期个体（M 年龄=19.60，SD=1.86，范围为 18-29，69%女性，69%白种人）。结果表明，对于男性和女性，玩暴力视频游戏与共情关注的降低之间存在小到中等程度的关联。此外，共情关注的降低部分解释了暴力视频游戏与对所有三个目标（女性呈趋势水平）的亲社会行为之间的关系，但与对陌生人的亲社会行为降低的关联最强。讨论强调了暴力视频游戏如何通过降低共情关注的机制与较低的亲社会行为相关联，这种关联如何在不同的目标上对亲社会行为产生不同的影响，以及这对成年早期的发展可能意味着什么。
