Do video games encourage racism? White people who play as black characters are more likely to express racist thoughts, study finds
By VICTORIA WOOLLASTON
PUBLISHED: 09:35, 21 March 2014 | UPDATED: 09:36, 21 March 2014
From Grand Theft Auto V to Saints Row 2 and Fight Night, many games let players choose between characters of different races. However, researchers have found that when white people play as black characters in video games classified as violent, the players were more threatening, offensive and racist in real life.
Scientists described the findings as 'disturbing' because it is the first time the race of a computer alter ego, or avatar, has been linked to this change in behaviour.
During tests, 126 white university students, 60 per cent of whom were male, played Saints Row 2 after being randomly assigned to either a black or white avatar.
Afterwards, those given the goal of breaking out of a prison as the black man showed stronger explicit negative attitudes towards black people than others who played as a white person.
For example, they were more likely to agree with the statement 'it is really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites.'
A test designed to reveal unconscious bias also found black avatar players were more likely to link a black face to bad words like ‘terrible’, ‘horrible’ and ‘evil’ than good ones such as ‘joy’, ‘love’ and ‘peace’. The reverse was true for those who played as a white avatar.
Psychologist Professor Brad Bushman, of Ohio State University, said it raises the troubling impact violent video games can have on players.
He said: 'Playing a violent video game as a black character reinforces harmful stereotypes that blacks are violent.
'We found there are real consequences to having these stereotypes. It can lead to more aggressive behaviour.'
Professor Bushman said: 'The media has the power to perpetuate the stereotype that blacks are violent, and this is certainly seen in video games.
'This violent stereotype may be more prevalent in video games than in any other form of media because being a black character in a video game is almost synonymous with being a violent character.'
In a second study, 141 white college students, 65 per cent of whom were girls, played one of two games - either WWE Smackdown vs. RAW 2010, or Fight Night Round 4. They equally played as either a black or white avatar.
The former group were more likely to link the photos of black faces they were shown after their game with weapons, while the latter tended to link images of white people with harmless objects, such as mobile phones.
Participants who played as a black character also acted more aggressively against an unseen partner, who did not actually exist, by forcing them to eat something they didn't like.
They gave them more than double (115 per cent) the amount of chilli sauce compared to the participants who had played as a white character, after being told the person hated spicy food.
In a statistical analysis, Professor Bushman found his volunteers' implicit attitude that black people are violent was linked to their actual aggressive behaviour once the game was turned off.
He said: 'This suggests playing a violent video game as a black avatar strengthens players’ attitudes that blacks are violent, which then influences them to behave more aggressively afterward.'
Professor Bushman noted the findings, published online by the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, shows it does not always help white people to take the perspective of a black person.
He added: 'Usually, taking the perspective of a minority person is seen as a good thing, as a way to evoke empathy. But if white people are fed a media diet that shows blacks as violent, they do not have a realistic view of black people.
'It is not good to put yourself in the shoes of a murderer, as you do in many of these violent games.'
