that people view competitive situations inherently more aggressive than cooperative ones.
In a study of 60 undergraduates, competition primed subjects killed significantly more
video game characters than cooperation primed subjects. The increased kill ratio occurred
in the absence of changes of hostility, friendliness, or liking for one’s game partner.
Because laboratory studies cannot study serious aggressive behavior for ethical reasons,
what is required are naturalistic field experiments. In the television violence literature,
these are regarded as uniquely important but unfortunately there are no such studies of
video games.