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Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Exploring the Use of Isolated Expressions and Film Clips to Evaluate Emotion Recognition by People with Traumatic Brain Injury
Published on: May 15, 2016
Violent video game play impacts facial emotion recognition
Steven J Kirsh1, Jeffrey R W Mounts
1Department of Psychology, SUNY-Geneseo, Geneseo, New York, USA. kirsh@geneseo.edu
Abstract:
This study assessed the speed of recognition of facial emotional expressions (happy and angry) as a function of violent video game play. Color photos of calm facial expressions morphed to either an angry or a happy facial expression. Participants were asked to make a speeded identification of the emotion (happiness or anger) during the morph. Typically, happy faces are identified faster than angry faces (the happy-face advantage). Results indicated that playing a violent video game led to a reduction in the happy face advantage. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to the current models of aggressive behavior.
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