TY - JOUR
T1 - Researchers' commercial video game knowledge associated with differences in beliefs about the impact of gaming on human behavior
AU - Klecka, Hanna
AU - Johnston, Ian
AU - Bowman, Nicholas David
AU - Green, C. Shawn
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Over the past thirty years, research situated in many individual sub-domains of psychology has investigated the potential impact of video game play on behavior. Interestingly, although researchers in the various sub-fields are (presumably) versed in the results of the published research, there nonetheless remain significant individual differences in opinion across researchers regarding what exactly the given literatures “say.” Previous work has suggested that some individual difference factors, such as prior gaming experience, can account for some of this variance. The current study expands this work by examining several additional individual difference factors including field of study (e.g., whether one primarily studies links between video games and aggression, cognitive skill, or well-being) and video game knowledge. Both types of individual differences were associated with differences in belief regarding the state of the literature. In particular, video game knowledge was negatively associated with the belief that video games can lead to addiction and cause aggression and violence, and higher knowledge scores were positively associated with a belief that games can model prosocial behavior. Results are presented in a larger discussion of how researchers’ primary domains of knowledge influence the study of technology of effects, such as those from video game play.
AB - Over the past thirty years, research situated in many individual sub-domains of psychology has investigated the potential impact of video game play on behavior. Interestingly, although researchers in the various sub-fields are (presumably) versed in the results of the published research, there nonetheless remain significant individual differences in opinion across researchers regarding what exactly the given literatures “say.” Previous work has suggested that some individual difference factors, such as prior gaming experience, can account for some of this variance. The current study expands this work by examining several additional individual difference factors including field of study (e.g., whether one primarily studies links between video games and aggression, cognitive skill, or well-being) and video game knowledge. Both types of individual differences were associated with differences in belief regarding the state of the literature. In particular, video game knowledge was negatively associated with the belief that video games can lead to addiction and cause aggression and violence, and higher knowledge scores were positively associated with a belief that games can model prosocial behavior. Results are presented in a larger discussion of how researchers’ primary domains of knowledge influence the study of technology of effects, such as those from video game play.
KW - Objectivity in science
KW - Video game knowledge
KW - Video game research
KW - Video games
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100267315&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.entcom.2021.100406
DO - 10.1016/j.entcom.2021.100406
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100267315
SN - 1875-9521
VL - 38
JO - Entertainment Computing
JF - Entertainment Computing
M1 - 100406
ER -