Rational Versus Intuitive Processing
The Impact of Cognitive Load and Moral Salience on In-Game Aggression and Feelings of Guilt
Abstract
Abstract. This study explored two main theoretical propositions. First, we tested Hartmann’s (2011, 2012) notion that video games are processed via two separate cognitive systems: System 1, the automatic system, and System 2, the rational system. Specifically, we used a cognitive load manipulation to test if intuitive moral responses such as guilt and anthropomorphism are processed in System 1. Second, we utilized moral foundations theory to test the effect of care salience on guilt and in-game aggression. Using an experimental design (n = 94), the results indicate that under conditions of cognitive load, players had somewhat lower in-game aggression. Effects on guilt and anthropomorphism were in the same direction, albeit with small effects. In terms of moral foundations, we found that care salience was not negatively related to in-game aggression but was directly related to guilt, indicating that greater emphasis on the moral foundation of care resulted in greater guilt. Also, anthropomorphism was positively related to experienced guilt and negatively related to in-game aggression.
References
2016).
(Video gaming as co-production . In R. LindEd., Producing 2.0: The intersection of audiences and production in a digital world (Vol. 2, pp. 107–123). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.2015). A massively moral game? Mass Effect as a case study to understand the influence of players’ moral intuitions on adherence to hero or antihero play styles. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 7(1), 41–57. doi: 10.1386/jgvw.7.1.41_1
(2008). Transportation and transportability in the cultivation of genre-consistent attitudes and estimates. Journal of Communication, 53, 508–529. doi: 10.1027/1864-1105/a000036
(1986). Anthropomorphism and mechanomorphism: Two faces of the human machine. Computers in Human Behavior, 2(3), 215–234.
(2006). Duality-models in social psychology: From opposing processes to interacting Systems. Psychological Inquiry, 17, 116–172. doi: 10.1207/s15327965pli1703-2
(2012). Cognitive load in the multi-player prisoner’s dilemma game: Are there brains in games? Available at SSRN 1841523.
(2006). Video game violence and the female game player: Self-and opponent gender effects on presence and aggressive thoughts. Human Communication Research, 32(3), 351–372. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2006.00279.x
(2014). Repeated exposure to narrative entertainment and the salience of moral intuitions. Journal of Communication, 64(3), 501–520. doi: 10.1111/jcom.12098
(1999).
(Some basic issues regarding dual-process theories from the perspective of Cognitive-experiential Self-theory . In S. ChaikenY. TropeEds., Dual process theories in social psychology (pp. 462–482). New York: Guilford Publishers.2008). Modern robust statistical methods: An easy way to maximize the accuracy and power of your research. American Psychologist, 63(7), 591.
(2013). Dual-process theories of higher cognition: Advancing the debate. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(223–241), 263–271.
(2013). The perception of human appearance in videogames: Towards an understanding of the effects of player perceptions of game features. Mass Communication and Society, 16(3), 299–324.
(1991). The trouble of thinking: Activation and application of stereotypic beliefs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(4), 509–517. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.60.4.509
(2011). Mapping the moral domain. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(2), 366–385. doi: 10.1037/a0021847
(2006).
(The cognitive neuroscience of video games . In P. MessarisL. HumphreysEds., Digital media: Transformations in human communication (pp. 211–224). New York, NY: Peter Lang.2014). Being bad in a video game can make us morally sensitive. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 17(8), 499–504. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2013.0658
(2001). The emotional dog and its rational tail: A social intuitionist approach to moral judgment. Psychological Review, 108, 814–834. doi: 10.1.1.124.9206
(2007). When morality opposes justice: Conservatives have moral intuitions that Liberals may not recognize. Social Justice Research, 20(1), 98–116. doi: 10.1007/s11211-007-0034-z
(2008).
(The moral mind: How five sets of innate intuitions guide the development of many culture-specific virtues, and perhaps even modules . In P. CarruthersS. LaurenceS. StichEds., The innate mind (Vol. 3, pp. 367–392). NewYork, NY: Oxford University Press.2011).
(Players’ experiential and rational processing of virtual violence . In S. MallietK. PoelsEds., Vice city virtue. Moral issues in digital game play (pp. 135–150). Leuven: Acco.2012).
(Moral disengagement during exposure to media violence . In R. TamboriniEd., Media and the moral mind (pp. 339–363). New York, NY: Routledge.2010). Just a game? Unjustified virtual violence produces guilt in empathic players. Media Psychology, 13(4. doi: 10.1080/15213269.2010.524912
(2010). It’s okay to shoot a character: Moral disengagement in violent video games. Journal of Communication, 60(1), 94–119. doi: 10.1111/j.14602466.2009.01459.x
(2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach, Guilford Press.
(2005). Enjoyment of mediated fright and violence: A meta-analysis. Media Psychology, 7, 207–237.
(1993). The Differential Emotions Scale: DES IV–a method of measuring the subjective experience of discrete emotions. Newark, DE: University of Delaware.
(2012). Gut or Game? The influence of Moral Intuitions on Decisions in Video Games. Media Psychology, 15(4), 460–485.
(2006). How players manage moral concerns to make video game violence enjoyable. Communications, 31(3), 309–328. doi: 10.1515/COMMUN.2006.020
(2016). Moral Foundations Theory and decision making. In videogame play: Using real-life morality. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 60, 87–103.
(2005). Social cognition: Understanding self and others. Hatfield, UK: Guilford Press.
(2009). The effect of image features on judgments of homophily, credibility, and intention to use as avatars in future interactions. Media Psychology, 12, 50–76.
(2006). The Influence of the Avatar on Online Perceptions of Anthropomorphism, Androgyny, Credibility, Homophily, and Attraction. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 11(1), 153–178. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2006.tb00308.x
(2013). Mass effect 3 by the numbers: 4 percent of players like shooting doctors in the face. PC Gamer, Retrieved from http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/03/25/mass-effect-3-infographic
(1986). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 129, 124–125. doi: 10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60214-2
(2014). Competence-impeding electronic games and players’ aggressive feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(3), 441–457. doi: 10.1037/a0034820
(2009). Having to versus wanting to play: background and consequences of harmonious versus obsessive engagement in video games. Cyberpsychology and Behavior, 12(5), 485–492. doi: 10.1089/cpb.2009.0083
(2009). A new conception of spatial presence: Once again, with feeling. Communication Theory, 19(2), 161–187.
(2009). Place illusion and plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society London, 364, 3549–3557.
(2006). A virtual reprise of the Stanley Milgram obedience experiments. PLoS ONE, 1(1), e39.
(2002).
(Two systems of reasoning . In T. GilovichD. GriffinD. KahnemanEds., Heuristics and biases: The psychology of intuitive judgment (pp. 370–396). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.2000). Dual process models in social and cognitive psychology: Conceptual integration and links to underlying memory Systems. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 4, 108–131. doi: 10.1207/S15327957PSPR0402_01
(2007). Better late than never? On the dynamics of online regulation of sadness using distraction and cognitive reappraisal. Pers Soc Psychol Bull., 33(11), 1518–1532.
(1999). Who is rational? Studies of individual differences in reasoning. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
(2000). Advancing the rationality debate. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, 701–726.
(2010). Repeated exposure to daytime soap opera and shifts in moral judgment toward social convention. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 54(4), 621–640. doi: 10.1080/08838151.2010.519806
(2012). Mirrored morality: An exploration of moral choice in video games. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15, 1–5.
(2011). What I won’t do in pixels: Examining the limits of taboo violation in MMORPGs. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(1), 268–275. doi: 10.1016/jchb.2007.07.002
(2006).
(Dramaturgy for emotions from fictional narration . In J. BryantP. VordererEds., Psychology of entertainment (pp. 215–238). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.