Does playing violent video games make us more aggressive? Although experts do not agree to give an unequivocal answer to this question, new research by experts at Ohio State University suggests that there is a technical characteristic that can enhance this unwanted consequence: 3D. “Technological advances intensify the effects on player behavior,” says Brad Bushman, co-author of the study with Robert Lull.
Bushman and Lull put 194 students (two-thirds were women) to play Grand Theft Auto IV for 15 minutes. Half of them were told to try to kill all the characters in their path, while the rest performed, following the instructions of the psychologists, peaceful virtual activities. There were also differences in the technical format used: some volunteers played in the traditional 2D and others, with 3D screens and the relevant glasses for that version.
They then made them fill out a questionnaire to rate the emotions, from 1 to 5, that they felt after the GTA IV session. Peaceful gamers, either in 3D or 2D, gave a similarly low score to the “anger” box, but those who perpetrated killings in the 3D version of the video game scored significantly higher in that category than those who pulled the trigger on screens. 2D .
In addition, the researchers asked them about the degree of immersion, that is, to what extent they had felt as if they were acting in a real environment. The 3D players also gave the highest scores in this section. “The combination of violent content and immersive technology can be problematic,” Bushman has summarized.
