Gamers against science: The case of the violent video games debate

Abstract

This article explores the notion that scientific research programs and empirical findings are fundamentally devalued when they threaten a perceiver's social identity. Findings from three studies show the following: (1) identification with the group of “gamers” (i.e., people who play video games on a regular basis) influences the extent to which perceivers devalue research suggesting that playing violent video games has negative consequences; (2) this effect is mediated by the feeling that the group of gamers is being stigmatized by such research (Studies 1 and 2) as well as by anger about this research (Study 2); (3) the effect of in‐group identification on negative research evaluations cannot be explained by attitude or behavioral preference inconsistency (Studies 1 and 3); and (4) strongly identified gamers not only devalue a specific scientific study but also generalize their negative evaluations to the entire field of violent video games research (Study 3). The findings suggest that the influence of social identity processes on the evaluation of research is larger than it has previously been recognized. Implications of these findings for science communication are discussed. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Identity and Epistemic Emotions During Knowledge Revision: A Potential Account for the Backfire Effect

“…The researchers concluded that individuals selfidentifying as Republican were not only less predisposed to believe a refutation incongruent with their party's prewar perspective but also doubled-down on the information that was refuted (i.e., intensified their original belief in the erroneous information as a consequence of the attempted correction). Other researchers have observed similar effects for a range of issues, including climate change (Hart & Nisbet, 2012), healthcare reform (Nyhan, Reifler, & Ubel, 2013), video game violence (Nauroth, Gollwitzer, Bender, & Rothmund, 2014, 2015, vaccinations (Nyhan & Reifler, 2015a;Nyhan, Reifler, Richey, & Freed, 2014), water conservation (Seyranian, Sinatra, & Polikoff, 2015), and even Lyme disease (Roh, McComas, Rickard, & Decker, 2015), and have arrived at similar conclusions: Attempts to argue for the inadequacy of incorrect knowledge in these areas results in some individuals more strongly adhering to that knowledge.…”

“…Lewandowsky, Stritzke, Oberauer, & Morales, 2005) and expend effort to counter-argue it (Nauroth et al, 2014(Nauroth et al, , 2015Nyhan & Reifler, 2010;Prasad et al, 2009). In so doing they activate more evidence that supports their original belief.…”

There is broad consensus: Media researchers agree that violent media increase aggression in children, and pediatricians and parents concur.

“…This uncomfortable feeling is called cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957), and one way to reduce it is to dismiss the evidence. There is research evidence indicating that this is exactly what "gamers" do when they encounter evidence indicating that violent video games increase aggression (Bender et al, 2013;Nauroth, Gollwitzer, Bender, & Rothmund, 2014;Greitemeyer, 2014). Fifth, people often feel uncomfortable whenever they believe that someone is trying to limit their freedom, such as by restricting media.…”

Clinicians’ attitudes toward video games vary as a function of age, gender and negative beliefs about youth: A sociology of media research approach

“…Murray, 1984) an argument some advocates of harm-related hypotheses have revived more recently (e.g. Bushman, Gollwitzer, & Cruz, 2014).…”