Competitive Aggression without Interaction: Effects of Competitive Versus Cooperative Instructions on Aggressive Behavior in Video Games

TLDR

Competitive contexts are generally perceived as more aggressive than cooperative ones. The authors extended Deutsch’s theory by testing whether framing an ambiguous aggressive scenario competitively, rather than cooperatively, would increase aggressive behavior. Both experiments found that competitive framing produced more aggressive content and caused participants to kill more video‑game characters, without affecting reported hostility, friendliness, or liking.

Abstract

Two experiments extended and tested Deutsch's (1993) theory of competition effects. A knowledge structure approach predicted that people view competitive situations as inherently more aggressive than cooperative ones. Furthermore, it was predicted that leading people to think of an ambiguously aggressive situation in competitive terms would increase aggressive behavior. In Experiment 1, knowledge structures of competitive situations had more aggressive content than cooperative ones. In Experiment 2, competition-primed subjects unnecessarily killed more video game characters (Mario Brothers) than cooperation-primed subjects. The increase in kill ratio occurred in the absence of changes in hostility, friendliness, or liking for one's game partner. Implications for understanding cooperation and competition, and for further research on such "affectless agression," were discussed.