Getting Killed in Computer Games Induces Happiness?
by Liam Bailey
2008-02-27 19:10:00 ****
I just read an article in the Telegraph about a study carried out by journal Emotion on the responses of Finnish students to actions in computer games. And either the Telegraph has got it mixed up, the people who typed up the results of the study got it mixed up, or the Finnish students were mixed up.
Apparently the report showed that the gamers display Anger and anxiety when they killed their enemies, and happiness when they got killed themselves.
The results came from using electrodes in the skin and facial muscles to detect arousal levels as well as particular emotions. Subjects also took the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire to check for any psychotic tendencies. And that presents one other possibility: Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the gamers knew they were being studied and, especially after being checked for psychotic tendencies were afraid to display happiness at killing in case they got carted away in a straight jacket.
I don't know about you, but I've been known to spend a few hours here and there playing computer games, and I was never happy to get killed, depending on how far I had got in the game, and how many times I had been killed on the same level, my emotions on getting killed ranged from frustration, to anger to resilience and sometimes to abjection, but I was never happy to get killed.
Killing enemies never made me anxious or angry either, in fact killing enemies hardly ever made me up nor down, except for if it was at a part of a level I had been stuck on for a while, or I killed them in a particularly cool way -- like with a special move or something.
Correct me if 'm wrong, using the newly installed comments section below this article, but I doubt I am. I know my friends displayed pretty much the same emotions as me anyway. The study was based on the latest bond game (James Bond 007: NightFire) and Monkey Ball II a non-violent game.
An emotion spokesman said this of the results:
"Instead of joy resulting from victory and success, wounding and killing the opponent elicited anxiety, anger, or both, while subjects appeared to respond positively to being killed."
The study also noted that the level of response to killing did not fade over time, which contradicted recent claims, that computer games desensitise kids to violence and increase the chances of them committing violent crimes. The spokesman added "the fact that wounding or killing the opponent elicited negative, not positive, emotional responses might be reassuring."
I would find it reassuring, but I just don't believe the results are correct.
