Wow, two posts in one night. Look at me go! I just finished reading a study done by one of my psychology professors. I won’t go into too much detail, but the study sought to measure the effect of blood in violent video games (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, pretty decent game although nothing beats the first 2) on aggression in males. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance there are multiple levels of blood you can choose from (no blood to a lot of blood). They found that the subjects who played the game on the highest blood setting showed higher arousal and hostility compared to those who played with no blood. They also found that those who played on the highest blood setting used their character’s weapon more than the other groups. According to the study, the ratio of time using the weapon and total time playing quantified aggression. I find this interesting, in that the participants were seasoned video game players and probably familiar the typical dynamics and strategies of gameplay. I don’t play video games much anymore, but I used to. Placing myself in the study, if I were asked to play a fighting video game for 15 minutes I would seek the most effective way to win (i.e kill my opponent). The character’s weapon does the most damage (compared to punches and kicks) and hence draws the most blood. I question whether the presence of blood caused more aggression and thus elicited more use of the weapon or if the presence of blood just clued the players in to the amount of damage they were doing which meant they were winning the game. The other groups had lower blood settings which means the effectiveness of their attacks couldn’t be gauged as well as the group playing with the higher blood setting. It seems like it might be more a game playing strategy than an aggressive response.
Anyways, what is a video game without some blood 
I remember looking up fatality codes on the Internet when I played the first Mortal Kombat. It just wasn’t as fun without them! No, but seriously… it’s an interesting study. If anyone is interested check it out. I also read some other stuff on aggression by Berkowitz today that was really thought-provoking if anyone is interested in this kind of research.
The effect of the amount of blood in a violent video game on aggression, hostility, and arousal
Christopher P. Barlett, Richard J. Harris, and Callie Bruey
in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
