Playing a violent game produced a significant increase in implicit aggressive self-concept relative to playing a peaceful game. Five minutes of play did not alter trait aggressiveness, yet an Implicit Association Test detected a change in implicit aggressive self-concept. In the violent game soldiers had to be shot, in the peaceful game sunflowers had to be watered, and the abstract game simply required clicking colored triangles. In the games the environmental context, mouse gestures, and physiological arousal-as indicated by heart rate and skin conductance-were kept constant. Ninety-six adults were randomly assigned to play one of three versions of a computer game that differed only with regard to game content (violent, peaceful, or abstract game), or to work on a reading task. We examined the causal relationship between playing violent video games and increases in aggressiveness by using implicit measures of aggressiveness, which have become important for accurately predicting impulsive behavioral tendencies.
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