ArticleSocial cognitive and affective neuroscience2024
The impact of acute violent videogame exposure on neurocognitive markers of empathic concern.
Article in Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Differential associations between distinct facets of empathy, engaged gaming, and problematic gaming behaviours.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- From exposure to identification: violent Malayalam cinema, aggression, and empathy in Malayali youth.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The Effect of Violent Virtual Avatar Experience on Players' Response Inhibition to Angry Expressions and Its Cognitive Neural Mechanisms.Experimental psychology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
Research examining the purported association between violent gaming and aggression remains controversial due to concerns related to methodology, unclear neurocognitive mechanisms, and the failure to adequately consider the role of individual differences in susceptibility. To help address these concerns, we used fMRI and an emotional empathy task to examine whether acute and cumulative violent gaming exposure were associated with abnormalities in emotional empathy as a function of trait-empathy. Emotional empathy was targeted given its involvement in regulating not only aggression, but also other important social functions such as compassion and prosocial behaviour. We hypothesized that violent gaming exposure increases the risk of aberrant social behaviour by altering the aversive value of distress cues. Contrary to expectations, neither behavioural ratings nor empathy-related brain activity varied as a function of violent gaming exposure. Notably, however, activation patterns in somatosensory and motor cortices reflected an interaction between violent gaming exposure and trait empathy. Thus, our results are inconsistent with a straightforward relationship between violent gaming exposure and reduced empathy. Furthermore, they highlight the importance of considering both individual differences in susceptibility and other aspects of cognition related to social functioning to best inform public concern regarding safe gaming practices.
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