In the past 10 years, live-streaming services have gained huge popularity. Streamers usually play video games and complement their performance with commentary. We examine the role of this streamer commentary on state aggression in Czech adolescents who were randomly assigned into one of the three experimental groups (i.e. aggressive commentary, non-aggressive commentary, no commentary). The findings suggest that a short-term streamer’s commentary has no effect on affective and cognitive state aggression. In addition, the experimental conditions did not moderate any effects of personal traits (i.e. aggression, empathy) and long-term environmental factors (i.e. exposure to violence, watching violent streams, playing violent video games) on state aggression. We found that trait aggression, trait affective empathy and long-term exposure to violence were positively associated with state aggression, whereas trait sympathy was negatively associated with state aggression. The findings enrich the research with evidence for the lack of influence of streamer commentary on viewer aggression.

In both casual conversations and interview settings, people may be required to provide details of instances that were similar to other experiences. When this happens repeatedly, consistency across reports is often taken as a proxy for credibility. However, processes of schema formation and interference due to similarity make recall and accurate source attribution of details to specific instances challenging. We investigated the accuracy and consistency of recall in these contexts in a re-analysis of five studies. Confusions of details were widespread (1) across instances-participants frequently attributed the origin of details to incorrect instances, but also (2) across repeated retrieval attempts-participants frequently changed parts of their reports. There was, however, a clear pattern of primacy and recency effects: Recall of the first and final instances was more accurate and consistent than recall of the middle instances. We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these effects as well as their practical implications.

In the past ten years, live-streaming services such as Twitch.tv have gained huge popularity among adolescents. In these services, streamers usually play video games and complement their performance with commentary. However, the evidence of the role of commentary by streamers on aggression has not yet been properly examined. Under the framework of the General Aggression Model, we examine the role of aggressive and nonaggressive commentary by streamers on the state aggression in Czech adolescents (N = 604). The participants were randomly assigned into one of three experimental groups (aggressive commentary, non-aggressive commentary, and no commentary) and required to observe a streamer’s gameplay in a violent video game. The findings from (multi-group) structural equation modeling, latent means comparisons and equivalence testing suggest that a streamer’s presence and commentary has no effect on the viewer’s state aggression. In addition, the experimental conditions did not moderate any effects of personal (trait aggression, trait empathy) and environmental (exposure to violence, watching violent streams, playing violent videogames) factors on the state aggression. Overall, we found that trait aggression, affective empathy and exposure to violence were positively associated with state aggression, whereas sympathy was associated with state aggression negatively. Cognitive empathy, watching violent streams and playing violent videogames were not associated with state aggression at all. The findings of this pre-registered study enrich the current research into aggression with evidence of the lack of influence of commentary by streamers on viewer aggression.