Turel Ofir
California State University, Fullerton, College of Business and Economics, Department of Information Systems and Decision Science, 800 N. State College Blvd.,Fullerton, CA, 92831, USA.
University of Southern California, Decision Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, 3620 South McClintock Ave.,Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
Comput Human Behav. 2020 Aug;109:106355. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2020.106355. Epub 2020 Mar 29.
The possible role of video gaming in imprinting aggressive and specifically gun-related behaviors has been elusive, and findings regarding these associations have been inconsistent. I address this gap by proposing and testing a that can explain inconsistent results regarding the previously assumed linear association between videogames and gun-related behaviors. The theory suggests that this association follows a U-shape. It posits that at low levels of video gaming time, video gaming displaces gun-related behaviors and shelters adolescents by keeping them occupied and by reducing opportunities and motivation to acquire guns. However, at some level of gaming time (because most popular games adolescents play include violent aspects), the assumed imprinting of aggressive behaviors overpowers the positive displacement force, and this can trivialize and naturalize gun-carrying behaviors, and ultimately increase motivation to obtain and carry guns. I tested this theory with two national samples of American adolescents (n1 = 24,779 and n2 = 26,543, out of which 403 and 378, respectively, reported bringing a gun to school in the last month). Multiple analyses supported the proposed U-shaped association. These findings show that the moral panic over video games is largely unsubstantiated, especially among light to moderate gamers.
电子游戏在灌输攻击性尤其是与枪支相关行为方面可能扮演的角色一直难以捉摸，有关这些关联的研究结果也不一致。我通过提出并检验一种理论来填补这一空白，该理论可以解释此前关于电子游戏与枪支相关行为之间假定的线性关联的不一致结果。该理论表明这种关联呈U形。它假定在电子游戏时间较短时，电子游戏会取代与枪支相关的行为，并通过让青少年有事可做、减少获取枪支的机会和动机来保护他们。然而，在一定的游戏时间水平上（因为青少年玩的大多数热门游戏都包含暴力元素），假定的攻击性行为的烙印会超过积极的取代作用，这可能会使携带枪支的行为变得微不足道并使其正常化，并最终增加获取和携带枪支的动机。我用两个美国青少年的全国样本（n1 = 24,779，n2 = 26,543，其中分别有403人和378人报告在过去一个月里带枪上学）对这一理论进行了检验。多项分析支持了所提出的U形关联。这些发现表明，对电子游戏的道德恐慌在很大程度上是没有根据的，尤其是在轻度到中度玩家中。
