Violent and non-violent virtual reality video games: Influences on affect, aggressive cognition, and aggressive behavior. Two pre-registered experiments

Abstract Immersive Ambulatory Virtual Reality (IA-VR) video games are relatively new and highly immersive. Given speculation that immersion may increase psychological effects of playing games, we examined whether violent IA-VR (cf. flat-screen) games increase aggression. Here, we report the first experimental studies to assess the effects of violent and non-violent IA-VR (cf. flat-screen) games on affect, aggressive cognition, and behavior. In Study 1, 200 participants played violent or non-violent IA-VR or flat-screen games in a pre-registered protocol. IA-VR was associated with slightly higher positive affect, but no higher aggression than comparable flat-screen games. Although violent games (IA-VR and flat-screen) increased aggressive cognition, this did not translate to hostile affect or aggressive behavior. In Study 2, 96 participants played a violent IA-VR or flat-screen video game. Again, no effects of IA-VR were observed on aggressive cognition, behavior, or hostile affect. In both studies, the relationship between aggressive cognitions, behavior and hostile affect was virtually nil. Though further replications are required with a greater variety of stimulus games, our studies provide early evidence against the notion that IA-VR increase aggression compared to flat-screen games. The lack of relationship between aggressive cognition and behavior suggests potential weaknesses in fundamental assumptions of the General Aggression Model.