Game Violence and Moral Distress: The Role of Gaming Experience and Personality-Related Factors

Inflicting virtual violence on others violates internalized moral norms of social interaction and therefore usually triggers feelings of moral distress. However, people play and enjoy violent media, especially violent video games (VVG) in which they commit violent acts. In two experimental studies, we tested why people enjoy violent media and whether personality-related factors like the Dark Tetrad (i.e., Machiavellianism, everyday sadism, psychopathy, and narcissism) play a role in it. In Study 1 (N = 313, online experiment), watching a violent video game clip or reading a violent text led to greater moral distress than watching a non-violent video. Although Dark Tetrad, VVG preference, and moral disengagement were all positively associated, none of these factors moderated moral distress. In Study 2 (N = 69, laboratory experiment), participants either played a violent or a non-violent game version. Again, game violence led to comparably greater moral distress. However, in contrast to Study 1 in which participants only watched violent media, Dark Tetrad now significantly moderated the relationship between condition and moral distress. Participants with low Dark Tetrad expressions experienced significantly greater moral distress in the violent condition. Generally, participants with more gaming experience felt less morally distressed after gameplay than inexperienced participants. The present findings corroborate the moral implications of experiencing media violence and the important role of personality-related factors, thus further illustrating the complexity of mechanisms underlying violent media effects.