Video Games May be Good for Your Morals: Virtual Violence Increases Sensitivity

Could video games be good for your morals? Scientists have found that heinous behavior played out in a virtual world may actually cause players to be more sensitive toward the moral codes that they violated.

In order to examine the role of guilt in participants playing violent video games, the researchers had 185 volunteers play a game where they violated two of five moral domains. The five domains included care/harm, fairness/reciprocity, in-group loyalty, respect for authority and purity/sanctity. The game involved either playing a shooter game as a terrorist or involved recalling real-life acts that induced guilt. After finishing the game, the volunteers then completed a three-item guilt scale and 30-item moral foundations questionnaire to assess the importance to them of the five moral domains.

"Rather than leading players to become less moral, this research suggests that violent video-game play may actually lead to increased moral sensitivity," said Matthew Grizzard, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This may, as it does in real life, provoke players to engage in voluntary behavior that benefits others."

In fact, the researchers found that after the volunteers played these games, they felt guilt. This guilt, in turn, was associated with greater sensitivity toward the two particular domains that were violated.

"Our findings suggest that emotional experiences evoked by media exposure can increase the intuitive foundations upon which human beings make moral judgements," said Grizzard. "This is particularly relevant for video-game play, where habitual engagement with that media is the normal for a small, but considerably important group of users."

In fact, the findings reveal that pro-social behavior could be provoked by virtual behavior.

The findings are published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.