The processes undergirding such polarizations, given the absence of evidence for strong positive or negative influences, are not understood.
This gap in our empirical knowledge is an important one because legislative priorities, parenting decisions, and the scientific study of electronic games may be being shaped by attitudinal dynamics we do not yet understand. The aim of the present work is to study views of electronic games using an approach that capitalizes on philosophical and psychological theory.
By doing so, the study aims to build empirically grounded insights concerning the conflicting narratives many have with respect to the influences of electronic games. In describing the idea of interpretive frameworks —the ways by which people acquire, systematize, and act on their knowledge—the philosopher and phenomenologist Martin Heidegger posited that both direct and indirect experience play fundamental roles in guiding attitudes and beliefs.
Said differently, for Heidegger, direct and indirect experiences are as likely to undergird highly subjective attitudes about specific topics, persons, or technologies, but interpretive frameworks grounded in first-hand experience tend towards congruency with objective and externally valid, assessments.
Compatible with the phenomenological approach, a long tradition of psychological research has focused on the ways by which experience shapes attitudes and beliefs James, ; Maslow, Research in this tradition has demonstrated that familiar experiences and stimuli are preferred to the unfamiliar Zajonc, This pattern of observations, framed as the exposure-attitude hypothesis and later the mere exposure effect, proposes that indirect experience, and even more so, direct experience with objects and stimuli reduces instinctive fear reactions to novel stimuli Bornstein, , Zajonc, Indirect and direct experience do indeed shape what Heidegger termed internal accuracy, but their roles in determining the external validity , or accuracy, of perspectives on attitudinal objects like technologies are not well understood.
Preliminary research investigating attitudes about electronic games suggests that a synthesis of these approaches may provide a useful conceptual frame for studying how people process and weigh information relevant to gaming. Two studies conducted with representative cohorts suggest that older people, those who grew up before the rise of electronic gaming and therefore have less indirect experience, are less likely to have direct experiences with games and they are more likely to believe games are a contributing cause violence in real-world contexts Harris Interactive, ; Przybylski, b.
This indicates that the degree of exposure to an entertainment technology may, generally speaking, influence the way it is perceived. Studies with convenience samples suggest that mere exposure, on a generational level, might influence how people see gaming technologies. For example, research by Kneer and colleagues shows that those who grew up in a time when games were common are less likely to believe games cause people to act violently, regardless of whether they themselves play games.
Given that preliminary evidence suggests familiarity and cognitive fluency with electronic games may shape how they are seen, the lens provided by Heidegger and Zajonc may provide a framework for advancing our understanding of attitudes towards digital technologies. Indirect experience through being part of a cohort that discusses and makes visible aspects of gaming might reduce negative views, whereas direct experience may reduce negative views and foster external accuracy of the real impact of games on people.
Building on this theorizing, in the current work we explore how these general, cohort-level, and specific, individual-level patterns of experience with games relate to the internal and empirical accuracy of beliefs held about these technologies.
Study 1 was aimed at investigating how indirect i. Hypothesis 1 was based on earlier research and predicted that cohorts with less direct exposure to electronic games—older people and women in particular—would tend to see them negatively Harris Interactive, ; Przybylski, b. Hypothesis 2 predicted that those having direct experience with games would generally tend to see them more positively. Finally, because direct exposure and personal experience play a central role in both the approaches of Zajonc and Heidegger, we also tested whether direct experience would mediate the relationship between indirect experience and attitudes Hypothesis 3.
Socio-demographic information was derived from panel data and the questions detailed below were presented at random in HTML format. Panel participants completed a double opt-in process and agreed to the YouGov b and were contacted as part of their ongoing participation in the YouGov Omnibus. In line with the YouGov terms of service YouGov, a , the investigators did not have access to any uniquely identifying participant information.
Participants could contact investigators using by way of email contact at YouGov. No inquiries linked to the present studies were received. Percentages reflect adjusted valid proportions of adults at different levels of game engagement as weighted by representativeness across the United Kingdom Studies 1 and 3 and United States Study 2.
Attitudes towards video and computer games were measured with participant responses to eight statements about electronic games. Although results are identical using either method, point-biserial correlations were used in place of independent samples t -tests to aid the comparison of preliminary statistics. The results from these preliminary correlation analyses lend preliminary weight to the exposure-attitude hypothesis Hypothesis 1 with respect to games see Table 2.
Zero-order correlation coefficients weighted by representativeness of participants across the United Kingdom general population. To test the expectation that those who have direct experience or exposure to games would see these technologies more positively our Hypothesis 2 , a regression model was tested holding variability in participant age and gender constant.
A series of models evaluated the indirect effects of cohort-level factors on attitudes toward games to test Hypothesis 3 see Fig.
Young people and men tended to have more experience with games and this differential exposure, in turn, related to more positive views of games, a pattern which accounted for between Coefficients are shown are non-standardized slopes.
Models weighted by representativeness of participants across the United Kingdom general population. Findings from this study provided support for applying the psychological and philosophical approaches of Zajonc and Heidegger to understanding attitudes towards gaming technologies.
However, in this study attitudes were examined broadly as positive and negative evaluations of technology use. Study 2 was designed to test if these findings generalized to a separate sample, and to increase the scope of the research by testing more policy-relevant views on whether games are causally linked to mass-shooting events e. EMA We once again tested the three hypotheses from Study 1: that indirect exposure would link with more positive attitudes Hypothesis 1 , as would direct exposure Hypothesis 2 , and that direct exposure would mediate the effects with indirect exposure Hypothesis 3.
Just as was the case in Study 1, socio-demographic cohort-level variables were collected as part of panel participation and measures of direct game experience were unchanged from the first study. Internally valid attitudes towards video and computer games were measured with participant responses to four attitudinal items regarding electronic games see Appendix S2 , similar to Study 1.
Principle components analysis showed these four items loaded on a single factor, accounting for Results from zero-order correlation analyses indicated that socio-demographic background factors related to views of games in line with the exposure-attitude hypothesis Hypothesis 1; Table 4.
Zero-order correlation coefficients weighted by representativeness of participants across the United States general population. A hierarchical regression model tested the hypothesis that games would evoke generally positive reactions in those who have had previous experience with them Hypothesis 2.
These findings conceptually replicated the findings of Study 1. Two additional models tested the predictions that personal experience with playing or viewing electronic games is linked to lower likelihood of believing they play a contributing role in mass-shooting or favoring new laws to regulating game availability. All coefficients weighted by representativeness of participants across the general population of the United States. A series of analyses examined the indirect effects of age and gender on outcomes of interest using the asymptotic boot-strapping approach employed in Study 1 Hypothesis 3.
Models examining general attitudes about games, beliefs about games and mass-shootings, and thinking new laws are needed to restrict games are presented in Table 5. Findings from this study conceptually replicated and extended the findings from the first study to an American sample and focused on key attitudes driving policy.
This is particularly important as it indicates specific, internally held views, on matters of legal policy towards technology may be shaped, in part on the extent to which members of the general public have direct and indirect experience with the technology in question. The purpose of Study 3 was to go further and investigate the accuracy of perceptions of gaming technology. Given these available estimates, this study treated these conclusions from the literature as the ground truth in terms of the Heideggerian concept of empirical accuracy.
Hypothesis 1: First, in line with the mere exposure effect and results from Studies 1 and 2 indicating that older participants and women tended to have less direct game experience, it was hypothesized that members of these cohorts would evaluate game effects more negatively and less positively than would be suggested by the scientific literature.
Hypothesis 2: Second, in line with Zajonc and Heidegger, it was predicted that those with direct personal experience of games—in this case, players and caregivers who co-play with their children—would be more likely to hold positive and empirically accurate views.
Specifically, it was hypothesized they would be more likely to believe games have small and inconsistent positive and negative effects—a position well-supported by scientific evidence—because their views are, in aggregate, based in actual experience.
The measure of direct gaming experience 1, responses was the same as in Studies 1 and 2 see Table 1. New to Study 3 were measures of caregiver status, caregiver-child co-play, and individual evaluations of positive and negative game effects.
A total of participants or Because literatures considering salutatory Baranowski et al. Judgment regarding the potential positive influences of electronic games on young people was assessed with a single item that asked participants to reflect on their beliefs regarding video and computer games. Roughly one third of the sample, Just under half of participants, or A series of multinomial logistic regression models examined the effects of indirect and direct experience with interactive gaming technology on holding high, low, and empirically-accurately estimates of the impact of electronic games on young people.
This approach minimized the number of statistical tests required and allowed each model to estimate the extent to which different person-level factors would be associated with judgments. Table 7 shows effects for judgments about the nature of positive effects of gaming, and Table 8 shows the judgments concerning the potential negative effects. A series of targeted models evaluated the indirect effects on empirically accurate estimations Table 9 , following the approach used in Studies 1 and 2.
These logistic mediation models used a coding of 1 for those who provided an empirically accurate estimate of probable game effects on young people i. These mediation models examined the indirect effects of direct gaming experience on evaluations of gaming technology. Models examining correlates of estimating large positive effects of gaming indicated co-playing caregivers were slightly more likely 1. Similar results were found for those who engage games frequently. Compared to individuals without personal experiences playing games, those who played games on a daily 2.
Multinomial models also showed three groups tended to estimate large negative effects. Compared to men, women were almost twice as likely 1. Those who played games a few times a year 2. Results showed that those who played games several times each year were the only cohort that estimated no positive gaming effects to a significantly greater extent, being 1. Results indicated a number of groups tended to underestimate the potential negative effects of electronic gaming on young people.
Men were twice as less likely 2. Compared to those who never played games, those who played on daily 2. Importantly, participants varied significantly in terms of their accurate knowledge of gaming effects. Results demonstrated that men were more likely 1. This was also the case for caregivers, who were more likely 1.
Parents who played with their children were a further three times 3. Direct gaming experience also showed strong effects as participants who played games on daily 2. Also importantly, a number of socio-demographic cohorts demonstrated they have a firm handle on the size of the negative effects that electronic games might have on young people.
Caregivers in general, and caregivers who play with their children specifically, were more likely to have an accurate idea of their negative effects 1. Results also showed that personal experience with electronic games was important.
Further, those who played electronic games on daily 2. The fractious interchanges among parents, pundits, and scholars hint at the rich phenomenological and psychological dynamics that underlie how people view digital technologies such as games. The current research applied Martin Heidegger's concept of interpretive frameworks Heidegger, and Robert Zajonc's exposure-attitude hypothesis Zajonc, to explore how attitudes towards technologies such as electronic games arise. Three studies drew on representative cohorts of American and British adults and evaluated how direct and indirect experiences with games shape how they are seen.
Results indicated this approach was fruitful: negative attitudes and beliefs linking games to real-world violence were prominent among those with little direct exposure to electronic gaming contexts, whereas those who played games and reported doing so with their children tended to evaluate gaming more positively.
Further findings indicated direct experience tended to inform the accuracy of beliefs about the effects of digital technology, as those who had played were more likely to believe that which is empirically known about game effects.
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