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The Paradox of Interactive Media: The Potential for Video Games and Virtual Reality as Tools for Violence Prevention

Interactive media such as video games and virtual reality (VR) provide users with lived experiences that may be dangerous or even impossible in daily life. By providing interactive experiences in highly authentic, detail-rich contexts, these technologies have demonstrated measurable success in impac...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bowman, Nicholas David, Ahn, Sun Joo, Mercer Kollar, Laura M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8064736/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33898555
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.580965
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author Bowman, Nicholas David
Ahn, Sun Joo
Mercer Kollar, Laura M.
author_facet Bowman, Nicholas David
Ahn, Sun Joo
Mercer Kollar, Laura M.
author_sort Bowman, Nicholas David
collection PubMed
description Interactive media such as video games and virtual reality (VR) provide users with lived experiences that may be dangerous or even impossible in daily life. By providing interactive experiences in highly authentic, detail-rich contexts, these technologies have demonstrated measurable success in impacting how people think, feel, and behave in the physical world. At the same time, violent interactive media content has been historically connected with a range of antisocial effects in both popular press and academic research. Extant literature has established a small-but-statistically significant effect of interactive media violence on aggressive thoughts and behaviors, which could serve as a risk factor for interpersonal violence. However, left unexplored is the seemingly paradoxical claim that under some conditions, interactive media experiences might protect against interpersonal violence. Drawing on advances in media theory and research and the evolution of interactive media content and production practices, the current manuscript suggests ways in which interactive media violence may be leveraged to lower the likelihood of real-world violence experiences. For example, research on both violent and non-violent games has found that players can (a) express guilt after committing violent acts, (b) report reflective and introspective emotional reactions during gameplay, and (c) debate the morality of their actions with others. Regarding VR, studies have demonstrated that (a) witnessing physical violence in immersive spaces led participants to take the perspective of victims and better understand their emotional state and (b) controlled exposure to traumatic or violent events can be used for treatment. Broadly, studies into video games and VR demonstrate that the impact of actions in virtual worlds transfer into the physical worlds to influence (later) attitudes and behaviors. Thus, how these experiences may be potentially harnessed for social change is a compelling and open consideration, as are side-effects of such interventions on vulnerable groups. The current manuscript summarizes emerging research perspectives (as well as their limitations) to offer insight into the potential for interactive media violence to protect against real-world violence victimization and perpetration.
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spelling pubmed-80647362021-04-23 The Paradox of Interactive Media: The Potential for Video Games and Virtual Reality as Tools for Violence Prevention Bowman, Nicholas David Ahn, Sun Joo Mercer Kollar, Laura M. Front Commun (Lausanne) Article Interactive media such as video games and virtual reality (VR) provide users with lived experiences that may be dangerous or even impossible in daily life. By providing interactive experiences in highly authentic, detail-rich contexts, these technologies have demonstrated measurable success in impacting how people think, feel, and behave in the physical world. At the same time, violent interactive media content has been historically connected with a range of antisocial effects in both popular press and academic research. Extant literature has established a small-but-statistically significant effect of interactive media violence on aggressive thoughts and behaviors, which could serve as a risk factor for interpersonal violence. However, left unexplored is the seemingly paradoxical claim that under some conditions, interactive media experiences might protect against interpersonal violence. Drawing on advances in media theory and research and the evolution of interactive media content and production practices, the current manuscript suggests ways in which interactive media violence may be leveraged to lower the likelihood of real-world violence experiences. For example, research on both violent and non-violent games has found that players can (a) express guilt after committing violent acts, (b) report reflective and introspective emotional reactions during gameplay, and (c) debate the morality of their actions with others. Regarding VR, studies have demonstrated that (a) witnessing physical violence in immersive spaces led participants to take the perspective of victims and better understand their emotional state and (b) controlled exposure to traumatic or violent events can be used for treatment. Broadly, studies into video games and VR demonstrate that the impact of actions in virtual worlds transfer into the physical worlds to influence (later) attitudes and behaviors. Thus, how these experiences may be potentially harnessed for social change is a compelling and open consideration, as are side-effects of such interventions on vulnerable groups. The current manuscript summarizes emerging research perspectives (as well as their limitations) to offer insight into the potential for interactive media violence to protect against real-world violence victimization and perpetration. 2020-11-23 /pmc/articles/PMC8064736/ /pubmed/33898555 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.580965 Text en https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Article
Bowman, Nicholas David
Ahn, Sun Joo
Mercer Kollar, Laura M.
The Paradox of Interactive Media: The Potential for Video Games and Virtual Reality as Tools for Violence Prevention
title The Paradox of Interactive Media: The Potential for Video Games and Virtual Reality as Tools for Violence Prevention
title_full The Paradox of Interactive Media: The Potential for Video Games and Virtual Reality as Tools for Violence Prevention
title_fullStr The Paradox of Interactive Media: The Potential for Video Games and Virtual Reality as Tools for Violence Prevention
title_full_unstemmed The Paradox of Interactive Media: The Potential for Video Games and Virtual Reality as Tools for Violence Prevention
title_short The Paradox of Interactive Media: The Potential for Video Games and Virtual Reality as Tools for Violence Prevention
title_sort paradox of interactive media: the potential for video games and virtual reality as tools for violence prevention
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8064736/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33898555
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.580965
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