Macbeth and the Joystick: Evidence for moral cleansing after playing a violent video game.

By Mario Gollwitzer, André Melzer. 2012

89 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The “Macbeth effect” denotes the phenomenon that people wish to cleanse themselves physically when their moral self has been threatened. In this article we argue that such a threat to one's moral self may also result from playing a violent video game, especially when the game involves violence against humans. The cleansing effect should be particularly strong among inexperienced players who do not play video games on a regular basis, because frequent players may apply other strategies to alleviate any moral concerns. Seventy students played one of two violent video games and were then asked to select 4 out of 10 gift products, half of which were hygiene products. Inexperienced players reported more moral distress when the game involved violence against humans (compared to violence against objects), and selected more hygiene products in this condition than frequent video game players. Frequent players, on the other hand, reported less moral distress, irrespective of the game they played.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/87de65c727bf2bc8aa0b48c8cf80f820e8e9cf13

How researchers see this paper

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In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. Tilo Hartmann

In Social Psychology

1. K. Maja Krakowiak
2. Mina Tsay-Vogel
3. Tilo Hartmann

In Sociology and Political Science

1. Mina Tsay-Vogel
2. Tilo Hartmann
3. K. Maja Krakowiak

Citations in the corpus

• How Violent Video Games Communicate Violence: A Literature Review and Content Analysis of Moral Disengagement Factors (2014, background): “Gollwitzer and Melzer (2012) found that inexperienced players felt greater moral distress when they inflicted violence against humans rather than objects. Similarly, Lin (2011) found that shooting monsters resulted in less guilt and shame, and more enjoyment, as compared to shooting virtual humans.”