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Updated: Jul 14, 2026
05:51
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
Aggressive Behavior
|June 27, 2007
Summary
Playing violent video games reduces the typical advantage of recognizing happy faces over angry faces. This finding impacts understanding of aggressive behavior models.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Media Psychology
Background:
- Facial emotion recognition is crucial for social interaction.
- A 'happy-face advantage' typically exists, where happy expressions are identified faster than angry ones.
- The impact of violent video game exposure on emotion recognition is not fully understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how violent video game play affects the speed of recognizing facial emotional expressions.
- To examine the influence of violent video games on the 'happy-face advantage'.
Main Methods:
- Participants identified emotions (happy or angry) from morphed facial images.
- Exposure to violent video games was a key variable.
- Speeded identification tasks were employed.
Main Results:
- Violent video game play was associated with a decrease in the happy-face advantage.
- The ability to quickly distinguish between happy and angry faces was impaired.
Conclusions:
- Violent video game exposure may alter fundamental social-cognitive processes, such as facial emotion recognition.
- Findings suggest a potential link between violent game engagement and changes in social perception relevant to aggression models.
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