Effects of violent video games on aggression are similar for adults with and without autism, study finds
In the years after the 2012 Newtown shooting, public debate and some media coverage questioned whether autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was associated with violent behavior and whether violent video games might provoke aggressive acts among people with autism. A new study from the University of Missouri directly examined this issue and found no evidence that brief exposure to violent video games increases aggressive responding specifically in adults with ASD. This investigation is the first controlled study to assess the immediate effects of violent video game exposure on aggression in adults diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
Lead author Christopher Engelhardt, a postdoctoral fellow at the MU School of Health Professions and the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders, summarized the main outcome: “If violent video games caused adults with autism spectrum disorder to behave aggressively, we should have seen some evidence of this in our study, but we did not.” The research team also reported strong evidence that adults with ASD respond to short-term exposure to violent games in ways that are comparable to typically developing adults.
Study design and measures: More than 100 adults aged 17 to 25 participated in the experiment; approximately half of the participants had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and the other half were typically developing. Participants were randomly assigned to play one of two video games that were matched on all features except the level of violent content. After a 15-minute play session, participants completed an established laboratory measure of aggressive behavior. In that task, participants were led to believe they were competing against another person on a reaction-time test. When the participant “won” a trial, they were given the option to deliver a loud noise blast to their supposed opponent. Participants set both the volume and duration of that noise, allowing researchers to quantify aggressive responding through the intensity and length of the selected blasts.
Results: The study found no evidence that short-term exposure to violent video games increased aggressive behavior in adults with autism spectrum disorder relative to typically developing peers. Across the measures used—aggressive behavior (noise-blast settings), aggressive thought accessibility, and aggressive affect—the patterns were similar for participants with and without ASD. These findings suggest that, under the conditions tested, violent game content did not produce heightened immediate aggression among adults with autism compared with other adults.
Important caveats: The authors emphasize several limitations. Most notably, exposure to the video games lasted only 15 minutes before measuring aggression, so the study cannot address possible long-term or cumulative effects of repeated violent-game play. The laboratory task provides a controlled, short-term index of aggressive responding, but it does not directly measure real-world violent actions or longer-term changes in behavior. As the researchers note, absence of evidence for short-term causal effects in this controlled setting should not be interpreted as evidence about long-term risk or about other contexts not captured by the study.
Implications: These results contribute to the scientific literature by providing the first experimental assessment of immediate behavioral responses to violent video-game exposure among adults with autism spectrum disorder. By demonstrating similar short-term responses in adults with and without ASD, the findings challenge the assumption that adults with autism are uniquely susceptible to violence after exposure to violent digital media. The study highlights the importance of rigorous, controlled research when evaluating claims that specific populations are more vulnerable to media influences.
The research team included Christopher Engelhardt, Micah Mazurek, Joseph Hilgard, Jeffrey Rouder and Bruce Bartholow from the University of Missouri’s Department of Health Psychology, Department of Psychological Sciences and the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. The study is titled “Effects of Violent Video Game Exposure on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive Thought Accessibility, and Aggressive Affect among Adults with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder” and has been accepted for publication in Psychological Science. An advance preview of the paper is available on the Open Science Framework (OSF).
Source: Jesslyn Chew, University of Missouri
Image source: The image is available in the public domain
Original research: Accepted for publication in Psychological Science; advance materials available via OSF.