According to a study published in the journal Social Psychology and Personality Science, people who habitually play video games respond differently to measures of aggression depending on their beliefs about the study’s goal. These findings suggest that demand effects may influence research findings about the effects of violent video games.
To test whether a study on the effects of violent video games was influenced by demand effects, participants were informed of one of two study goals. Some participants were told that the goal of the study was to determine whether people who play violent video games are more aggressive than people who do not play them (positive hypothesis condition), while other participants were told that the goal was to determine whether there were no differences in aggression between these people (null hypothesis condition). Participants then completed a measure of either behavioral aggression (determining how long they would play an annoying noise at a competitor after losing; Study 1) or trait aggression (Study 2).
