Beat the Stress Level - Dissociative effects of violent gaming for stress recovery and aggression

Many players use video games for stress relief. Gaming might even be effective in reducing stress levels (e.g., Pine et al., 2020). While some research showed that violent video games (VVG) have negative effects such as increases in aggressive behavior (Calvert et al., 2017; Greitemeyer, 2022), other research did not find such effects (Ferguson, 2019; Prescott et al., 2018). Studies even provided evidence that playing some VVG can be positive for well-being (e.g., Johannes et al., 2021) or provide physiological relaxation (Wagener et al., 2024). In the present lab experiment (N = 82), we looked at potential effects of VVG on relaxation and stress relief. We assessed self-reported stress and aggressive feeling, physiological relaxation (i.e., heart rate variability), and aggressive behavior. Before participants were randomly assigned to either play a non-violent or a violent passage of a video game (A Plague Tale: Requiem) for 25 minutes, their level of stress was induced with the socially evaluated cold pressor task. Results showed that there was no difference between conditions for aggressive behavior (time allocated for CPT of next participant) after gameplay. In contrast to behavior, however, participants in the violent condition felt significantly more aggressive and more stressed. For participants in the non-violent condition, there was a decrease in self-reported stress levels. Interestingly, on a physiological level, playing video games, led to relaxation (i.e., increases in HRV) independent of violent content. This dissociation between self-reports, physiology and behavioral data suggests a complex, multifactorial conceptualization of the effects of video games.