CYBERPSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIOR

Volume 10, Number 3, 2007

© Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089/cpb.2006.9942

Effects of Playing Violent Videogames on Chinese

Adolescents’ Pro-Violence Attitudes, Attitudes
Toward Others, and Aggressive Behavior

RAN WEI, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT

This study examines the effects of exposure to online videogame violence on Chinese ado-
lescents’ attitudes toward violence, empathy, and aggressive behavior. Results of bivariate
analyses show that playing violent videogames on the Internet was associated with greater
tolerance of violence, a lower emphatic attitude, and more aggressive behavior. Results of hi-
erarchical regression analyses showed sustained relationships between exposure and pro-vi-
olent attitudes and empathy when exposure was examined simultaneously with gender, com-
puter use, and Internet use. However, the linkage between exposure and aggression became
non-significant, suggesting that the effects of playing violent videogames were greater for at-
titudinal outcomes than on overt behavior. Gender differences in playing videogames and in
effects were also found.

INTRODUCTION search (10%), other uses (8%), and chatting in vari-

ous forums (6%).3 In using the Internet for enter-

T HE GROWTH of the population using the Internet

in China is phenomenal. The number of Inter-
net users soared to 100 million in June 2005, from
tainment, Chinese Internet users are attracted to
videogames, as similar to their counterparts in other
countries.4–6 Estimates put the number of online
10 million in 2000.1 Nevertheless, China’s Internet videogame players in China at 13 million, and they
diffusion rate is among the lowest in the world, at spent approximately US$240 million in 2004.7
10%. Filling the gap between a growing demand for Content analyses show that violence in various
access to the Internet and a low adoption rate are forms (such as death and destruction) characterizes
the mushrooming Internet cafés, which provide af- the most popular videogames, online or offline.8,9
fordable high-speed public access (it costs 2–4 yuan, For example, analysis of 55 E-rated (i.e., appropri-
approximately 25–50 cents, for an hour’s worth of ate for “everyone”) videogames in the United States
access). The number of Internet cafés reached found that 64% of them contained intentional vio-
120,000 in 2005.2 They are highly popular among lence, defined as acts that caused physical injury or
students, businesspeople on the go, and migration death to a character.10 Some of these online
workers. A survey of 27,000 Chinese users in July videogames were imported to China from Japan,
2005 showed that they used the Internet primarily South Korea, and the United States.
for information (38%), entertainment (38%), re- Though the existing research on the effects of

School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

371
372 WEI

playing violent videogames is short of a consensus, of exposure to videogame violence on attitudes of

a growing number of studies has found negative ef- male students prior to and after play, Nelson and
fects on children and adolescents.11–14 To date, no Carlson24 used various instruments to collect data
research has systematically assessed the harm of ex- among 24 boys ages 9–15. Results showed that, the
posure to violence in videogames in China. This longer the play, the higher the level of discomfort
study fills the gap. As the first empirical study on and the lower the positive moods. The Deselms and
effects of violent videogames on China’s 200 million Altman23 experiment also found that exposure to vi-
adolescents, it seeks to address two concerns: (1) olence in videogames reduced sensitivity to ag-
What are the attitudinal and behavioral effects of gressive acts among male undergraduates. Thus, we
playing violent videogames on Chinese adolescent hypothesize:
Internet users? (2) Is there a gender difference in
playing videogames on the Internet in terms of play- H1: Chinese adolescents who have had a higher level of
ing time and exposure to videogame violence? If exposure to violence in videogames will be more pro-vi-
there is, are the effects stronger on males than on olence.
females?
Attitudes toward others. Previous research also ex-
amined the impact of exposure to videogame vio-
Literature review and hypotheses
lence on children and adolescents’ social cognitive
Drawn from the literature on effects of mediated abilities, with a focus on how playing violent
violence, past research on videogame violence seeks videogames affects their ability to relate to others.
to establish linkages, correlational or causal, be- Evidence suggests that hostile feelings and anxiety
tween exposure and social cognitive effects, affec- increased in participants who played videogames of
tive effects, violent behavior, and pro-social behav- aggression.25,26 Gentile et al.27 found that exposure
ior. As Sherry’s5 meta-analysis of 25 studies shows, to videogame violence was related to being hostile
exposure to videogame violence was related to an to others and getting into arguments with teachers
increase in aggressive thoughts, feelings of anger or among 607 students in grades 8 and 9. Recent
hostility, and heightened aggression, but a decrease studies explored the effect of playing violent
in pro-social behavior. videogames on empathy—one’s ability to under-
stand the inner experience of others.28,29 Sakamoto30
Attitudes toward violence. Rushbrook15 investi- surveyed 307 elementary school students in Japan
gated the linkage between playing videogames and and found that the longer boys spent playing
attitudes toward war among boys in grades 5–11. videogames, the less empathic they were. Flowers
He found that, the more the students played, the et al.,21 asked children to respond to 15 items deal-
more favorable they felt toward war. Krahe and ing with attitudes to others. Results showed that,
Moller4 found a significant relationship between at- the more children played violent videogames, the
traction to violent games and the acceptance of lower were their empathy scores.
norms condoning aggression among 231 German In an experimental study, Anderson and Ford25
adolescents. As violent videogames typically nor- placed subjects into three conditions: a mildly ag-
malize, even glamorize, violence,16 recent studies gressive game, a highly aggressive one, and no
focused on the anesthetizing effect of repeated ex- game. After playing for 20 min, each participant
posure to videogame violence. “Anesthetizing ef- completed a checklist to measure anxiety, hostil-
fect” refers to exposure to mediated violence that ity, and depression. Their results showed a rela-
desensitizes children to violence, resulting in tionship between playing the highly aggressive
greater tolerance for violence.17–20 Using the Atti- videogames and anxiety. Moreover, hostility in-
tudes Towards Violence Scale as the dependent creased in both game conditions relative to the con-
variable, a study by Flowers et al.21 reported that trol group. Similarly, Ballard and Wiest31 assigned
exposure to videogame violence was a significant subjects to varying levels of videogame violence
predictor of pro-violence attitudes. The desensitiz- condition and measured their hostility. Results
ing effect of videogame violence on children was were consistent. The above review leads to the fol-
confirmed in other studies on elementary school lowing hypothesis:
students in the United States.16
Similar results were reported in experimental H2: Chinese adolescents who have had a higher level of
studies examining the attitudinal effects of exposure exposure to videogame violence will be less concerned
to violence in videogames.11,23 To assess the effect about others.
EFFECTS OF PLAYING VIOLENT VIDEOGAMES 373

Behavioral effects of playing violent videogames. olent videogame acted more aggressively toward a
Concerning the impact of exposure to mediated vi- bobo doll than those who played a nonviolent game.
olence on children along with adolescents’ propen- Recently, Uhlmann and Swanson48 reported that
sity for aggressive behaviors or the delinquency of playing violent videogames led to an automatic ag-
aggression, numerous studies established the link- gressive self-concept—the extent to which one
age between violent videogame exposure and ag- spontaneously associates the self with aggressive
gressive behavior.14,27,32 Using a sample of students traits and actions.46,47 Thus, we hypothesize the fol-
in grades 10 and 11, Dominick13 explored the rela- lowing:
tionships between time spent playing videogames
and level of aggression. Findings showed that ar- H3: Chinese adolescents who have had a higher level of
cade videogame playing was positively correlated exposure to videogame violence will exhibit a higher level
with hypothetical aggression, physical aggression of aggressive behavior.
and aggressive delinquency. Others 33,34 found con-
sistently that videogame playing time was a posi- Gender differences in playing videogames and effects
tive correlate of self-reported aggression and teach- of exposure to videogame violence. Previous research
ers’ ratings of aggression. Wiegman and van Schie36 suggests that demographic and personality trait
reported that children who preferred violent variables moderate the effects of exposure to
videogames were rated by their peers as more ag- videogame violence.5,12,49 Gender is such a vari-
gressive. Using a diary-keeping method to collect able. Numerous studies reported that boys spent
data on time spent playing videogames among more time playing videogames than girls.30,35,38
10–14-year-olds, van Schie and Wiegman35 found a Moreover, Funk et al.50 asked students in grades
negative relationship between time spent playing 4–8 which types of videogames they preferred. Re-
videogames and pro-social behavior. Chambers and sults showed that boys preferred realistic human
Ascione37 found that children donated much less violence and sports games; girls leaned toward
money to a charitable cause after playing a violent general entertainment and less realistic fantasy
videogame. games. The Sherry et al.6 study reported that half
Regarding aggressive behavior, Colwell and of the favorite videogames for boys were violent.
Payne38 examined time spent playing computer Lucas and Sherry49 explored college students’ pref-
games and aggression among 204 British adoles- erence for different genres of videogames. Results
cents. Results showed a linkage between game showed that women preferred traditional games
play and aggression scores. This study was repli- over physical enactment games. In contrast, male
cated in Japan among 305 12–13-year-old stu- players liked physical enactment games over tra-
dents39 with consistent results. Anderson and ditional games. Accordingly, the fourth hypothe-
Dill11 studied American college students; they sis is formulated:
found that exposure to videogame violence was
strongly correlated with aggressive delinquent be- H4: Chinese male adolescents will spend more time play-
havior. The Gentile et al. study27 revealed that ing videogames online and have a higher level of expo-
prolonged exposure to violent videogames was re- sure to videogame violence than will female adolescents.
lated to physical fights among 607 students in
grades 8 and 9. Slater et al.40 surveyed 6th and 7th More important, differences were found between
graders for 2 years to examine longitudinal effects males and females in effects of exposure to violent
of playing violent videogames on visiting vio- videogames. Boys who played videogames at home
lence-oriented Web sites. Results showed that stu- had a lower level of empathy.30 Survey stud-
dents tended to be more aggressive over time; ies11,13,39 found that boys who played more violent
their increased use of violent media over time pre- videogames were more aggressive. Experimental
dicted aggressiveness. studies23,31,44,46,47 reported such differences as well.
Experimental evidence also shows that playing Cooper and Mackie41 found that girls who played
videogames of violence produced aggressive be- an aggressive videogame were more likely to use
havior.41–43 Graybill et al.44 assigned subjects to aggressive toys than girls who played a non-ag-
play either a violent or nonviolent videogame, and gressive game. The Bartholow and Anderson47 ex-
noted their references to violent words or actions. periment examining game and sex interaction
Results supported a relationship between playing showed that playing violent videogames resulted in
videogames and children’s aggression fantasies. more aggression for men. Based on these findings,
Schutte et al.45 found that children who played a vi- the final hypothesis is proposed:
374 WEI

H5: The attitudinal and behavioral effects of playing Exposure to videogame violence. Respondents were
videogames will be greater on Chinese male adolescents given a list of 14 most popular games,a and were
than female adolescents. asked if they had played them (1  yes, 2  no). The
level of violence in each game was predetermined
based on content analyses of the game descriptions
METHODS and expert rating. The rating scale was a three-point
scale: “0” (free from violence; singing and dancing
To test the hypotheses, a survey of adolescent
contest games such as Poptang), “1” (containing
videogame players was conducted at an Internet
some violence such as adventure themed games like
café in a city of 1 million residents in central China
A Chinese Odyssey) to “2” (violent such as war and
using a purposive sample. Internet cafés were cho-
combat games like Warcraft—a game features fight-
sen as the site of fieldwork because of low penetra-
ing terrorists). An index of exposure to videogame
tion rates of console games and the Internet at home.
violence was constructed after first multiplying the
Potential respondents were approached by trained
exposure for each game by the violence rating for
college students to assure them that participation
that game and then summing the scores for all the
was voluntary and anonymous, and that data col-
games (M  8.89, SD  5.08, a  0.79). The index
lected would be kept confidential. Only those who
ranged from “0” (playing games of no violence) to
agreed to participate and had played games online
“18” (playing all the games on the list that contained
at least once filled out the self-administered ques-
varying level of violence).
tionnaire. The survey was conducted during 2
weeks in July and August 2005. A total of 312 re-
Attitudes toward violence. The measure of atti-
spondents completed the survey successfully.
tudes to violence relied on a scale developed by Fulk
Of the sample, nearly two-thirds (65.1%) were
et al.22 The scale has 16 items that intend to gauge
males and about one-third (34.9%) were females.
respondents’ attitudes toward culture of violence
The average age was 16.91 years (SD  2.43), with
(e.g., “It’s a good idea to hang out with people in
the youngest being 11 years old and the oldest be-
gangs,” “People with guns or knives are cool,” and
ing 22. Of the sample, 15.5% were elementary or
“People who use violence get respect”) and reactive
middle schoolers, 49.9% were high schoolers, 7.2%
violence (e.g., “If person hits you, you should hit
were in vocational colleges, and 27.5% were college
back,” “Parents should tell their kids to fight if they
students. In terms of household monthly income,
have to,” and “It’s OK to do whatever it takes to
15.9% reported an income below 1,000 yuan, 36.9%
protect myself”). Respondents were asked to indi-
had an income of 1,000–2,000 yuan, 22.9% had an
cate their agreement on four response options: (1)
income of 3,000–9,000 yuan, and only 2.3% had an
no, (2) maybe, (3) probably, and (4) yes. A compos-
income above 10,000 yuan.
ite measure was created by adding the 16 items and
dividing by 16 (M  2.06, SD  0.52, a  0.79).
Measures and scales
Playing videogames online. Respondents were first Attitudes toward others. The empathic concern sub-
asked if they had a personal computer (PC) (1  yes; scale developed by Davis51 was used to measure re-
2  no). Those having a PC reported the hours per spondents’ tendency to feel sympathetically and com-
day using it. Similarly, they were asked if they had passionately for unfortunate others. Respondents
Internet access at home (1  yes; 2  no). Those hav- were asked to indicate their agreement with seven
ing a home connection reported the hours per day go- statements: (1) “I often have tender, concerned feel-
ing online (excluding playing videogames). Then, ings for people less fortunate than me,” (2) “Some-
they were requested to indicate how long (in months) times I don’t feel very sorry for other people when
they had played videogames on the Internet, followed they are having problems,” (3) “When I see someone
by questions on frequency of playing per week. The being taken advantage of, I feel kind of protective to-
response categories were (1) once, (2) twice, (3) three ward them,” (4) “Other people’s misfortunes do not
to five times, (4) daily, and (5) many times per day. usually disturb me a great deal,” (5) “When I see
They were requested to estimate the time and money
spent playing videogames each time. The response
aThe list was based on ranking in the Chinese press and in-
categories for time were (1) less than 30 min, (2) 30–60
terviews with staff at Internet cafés. All of them were available
min, (3) 1–2 h, (4) 3–4 h, (5) 5–6 h, and (6) more than
at the time of the survey. The games are A Chinese Odyssey (2),
6 h. The response categories for money spent were (1) Audition Town, O2jam, World of Warcraft, Woool, Adventurous Is-
less than 5 yuan, (2) 6–10 yuan, (3) 11–20 yuan, (4) land, Yulhyul Gangho, MU, Poptang, Need for Speed, Counter Strike,
21–30 yuan, and (5) more than 30 yuan. Star Craft, Red Alert, and Samurai.
EFFECTS OF PLAYING VIOLENT VIDEOGAMES 375

someone being treated unfairly, I sometimes don’t ing online (not counting playing games) was 2.68 h
feel very much pity for them, (6) “I am often quite per day (SD  3.12). The median category of length
touched by things that I see happen,” and (7) “I would of playing videogames online among the 312 re-
describe myself as a pretty soft-hearted person.” The spondents was 1–2 years. They played typically one
five-point scale ranged from “0” (does not describe to two times per week, with playing time per sit-
me well) to “4” (describes me very well). The seven ting averaging 3–4 h. The median category of money
items were summed as an index of empathy (M  spent each time was 6–10 yuan. The games that they
2.50, SD  0.63, a  0.63), ranging from 0 to 28. played the most were Audition Town, followed by
CS and Read Alert. The least-played game was Yul-
Aggressive behavior. The aggression scale has three hyul Gangho (a kungfu game).
dimensions: hypothetical aggression, manifest phys-
ical aggression, and aggressive delinquency.18,38
Bivariate and multivariate analyses
Concerning hypothetic aggression, respondents were
given four hypothetical situations such as “Some- H1 predicted that Chinese adolescents with a
body picks a fight with you on the way home from higher level of exposure to violence in videogames
school; Someone cuts in front of you in a long line.” would be more pro-violence; this hypothesis was
They were asked to respond to one of the following supported. The result of Pearson’s correlation test
three choices: (1) “fight” or “shove them out,” (2) shows that exposure to videogame violence was sig-
“back out of it” or “yell at them,” and (3) “just let it nificantly related to attitudes to violence (r  0.18;
go” or “try to discuss the problem.” Regarding man- p  0.01). H2 predicted that Chinese adolescents
ifest physical aggression, respondents were pre- with a higher level of exposure to videogames on-
sented with six statements such as “Whoever insults line with violence would be less concerned about
me or my family is asking for a fight,” “When I was others; this hypothesis was supported as well. Play-
younger, I used to act like a bully sometimes,” and ing violent videogame was significantly but nega-
“I don’t feel it is wrong for me to hit another kid who tively linked to empathy (r  0.30, p  0.001). H3
deserves it.” The response categories were on three- predicted that Chinese adolescents who had a
point scale: (1) a lot like me, (2) a little like me, and higher level of exposure to violence contained in on-
(3) not like me. Regarding aggressive behavioral line videogames would behave more aggressively;
delinquency, respondents were asked to respond to this was supported. The correlation between expo-
three items that gauged the frequency of engaging in sure to videogame violence and aggression was sig-
three aggressive activities, including fighting with nificant (r  0.32, p  0.01).
several people, hurting someone for the sake of re- Hierarchical regression analyses were run next to
venge, and fighting with another student. The scale examine if the significant bivariate linkages between
ranged from “1” (more than 5 times) to “5” (never). exposure to violence in online videogames and the
The alpha of manifest physical aggression, hypo- three outcome measures would hold when other
thetical aggression, and delinquency behavior was, variables were taken into account. Three separate
respectively, 0.66, 0.57, and 0.79. The correlations hierarchical regression analyses were performed
among the three indices were moderately high, treating attitudes toward violence, empathy, and
ranging from 3.8 to 4.1. An overall index of aggres- aggression as the criterion variable respectively.
sive behavior was created by summing the indi- Table 1 summarizes the results of the analyses in
vidual items (M  20.00, SD  5.61, a  0.60). The which gender was entered first into the equation,
new scale ranged from 12 (low in aggression) to 37 followed by computer use and time spent using the
(high in aggression). Control variables were demo- Internet. The final block included the exposure to
graphics such as age, gender, school year, and videogame violence.
household monthly income. As Table 1 shows (column 1), computer use had
a significant relationship with attitudes toward vi-
olence. The more time respondents spent using
RESULTS computers, the more pro-violence they were. Re-
sults also show that exposure to violence in online
Among the 312 respondents, 43.1% had one PC videogames was related significantly to attitudes to
at home, while the majority (56.9%) did not own violence. Respondents who used the home com-
any. The average time spent using home computers puter more and played more violent online
was 4.06 h (SD  3.33) per day. Slightly more than videogames tended to tolerate violence more. The
one third (35.4%) had an Internet connection at variance explained by the two predictors was 7.6%
home; the rest (64.6%) did not. The time spent go- (adjusted R2). The unique contribution of exposure
376 WEI

TABLE 1. SUMMARY OF HIERARCHICAL REGRESSION ANALYSES

FOR VARIABLES PREDICTING ATTITUDINAL AND BEHAVIORAL
EFFECTS OF EXPOSURE TO VIDEOGAME VIOLENCE

Attitudes
Steps/variables violence Empathy Aggression

Block 1: Control variables

Gender 0.01 0.24** 0.31***
R2 (%) 0.0% 1.11% 12.4%
Block 2: Computer and internet use
Computer use 0.24** 0.20** 0.18**
Time spent online 0.02 0.13 0.17**
Incremental R2 (%) 7.0% 2.1% 9.8%
Block 3: Violence exposure
Exposure to videogame violence 0.14* 0.17* 0.10
Incremental R2 (%) 1.7% 1.5% 0.0%
Final R2 (%) 8.8% 14.7% 22.2%

Beta weights from final regression equation with all blocks of variables in the
model. Gender was coded as a dummy variable (1  male, 0  female)
*p  0.05.
**p  0.01.
***p  0.001.

to videogame violence was 1.7%. These multivari- Together, the variance explained by the three pre-
ate results provided more evidence for the linkage dictors was 21.3% (adjusted R2). Consistent with
between exposure to videogame violence and the past studies,52 this particular result reveals that the
tolerance of violence among Chinese adolescent In- relationship between exposure to videogame vio-
ternet users. lence and aggression was not sustained when in-
Regarding attitudes toward others (column 2 in fluences of other predictors were taken into account.
Table 1), the regression analysis shows that gender An explanation may be that effects of exposure to
was a significant correlate of empathy. Males ex- violent videogames were direct and strong on atti-
hibited a significantly lower level of empathic atti- tudes, but indirect and weak on behavior in multi-
tudes toward others than did females. Computer variate analyses.5
use and exposure to videogame violence were also
significant predictors of empathy. Respondents
T-tests
who spent more time using computers tended to
have higher empathy scores, but those that had a H4 predicted that male adolescents would spend
higher level of exposure to violent videogame were more time playing videogames online and have a
less empathetic. The variance explained by the three higher level of exposure to videogame violence than
predictors was 13.3% (adjusted R2). Exposure to would female adolescents. Means and standard de-
videogame violence contributed 1.5% to the vari- viations were computed by gender for time playing
ance explained. These results analysis provided ad- videogames on the Internet and exposure to vio-
ditional evidence to support the unequivocal rela- lence contained in online games. A series of t-test
tionship between exposure to videogame violence was run to test this hypothesis. Results in Table 2
and the Chinese teens’ empathy. show that males consistently reported a longer his-
With regard to aggression (column 3 in Table 1), tory of playing videogames on the Internet and a
the hierarchical regression results show that gender, higher frequency of playing. Moreover, males
computer use, and Internet use were significant pre- played longer for each session than females. The
dictors of aggressive behavior. Males who spent greatest discrepancy between male and female In-
more time using computers and surfing the Inter- ternet users was for exposure to videogame vio-
net had a tendency for behaving aggressively. How- lence. The mean score for males was 11.36, but the
ever, exposure to violent videogames on the Inter- mean score for females was only 4.30. These results
net was not a significant predictor of aggression. supported H4.
EFFECTS OF PLAYING VIOLENT VIDEOGAMES 377

TABLE 2. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN PLAYING VIDEO GAMES AND EXPOSURE TO VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE

Male (n  196) Female (n  106) t-test

Playing videogames
History of playing 3.85 2.57 t  6.37, p  0.0010
Frequency of playing 2.97 2.49 t  3.58, p  0.0010
Playing time each sitting 3.89 3.17 t  5.42, p  0.0010
Playing violent video games 11.36 4.30 t  16.48, p  0.001

Categories of history of playing video games are: (1) less than 6 months; (2) 6 months to 1 year; (3)
1–2 years; (4) 3–4 years; (4) 5–6 years; (5) more than 6 years.
Categories of frequency of playing per week are: (1) less than once; (2) once a week; (3) twice a week;
(4) 3–4 times a week; (5) daily.
Categories of playing time each sitting are: (1) less than 1 h; (2) 1–2 h; (3) 3–4 h; (4) 5–6 h; (5) more
than 6 h.
The index of playing violent video games ranges from 0 (meaning playing no violent games) to 18
(meaning playing all the popular violent video games).

H5 predicted that the attitudinal and behavioral linked to pro-violence attitudes, less empathy, and
effects of playing videogames would be greater on more aggressive behavior among male adolescents
Chinese male adolescents than on females. Results in China. H5 was supported.
of correlation test in the male sample show that ex-
posure to videogame violence was significantly cor-
related with attitudes to violence (r  0.20; p  DISCUSSION
0.05), empathy (r  0.18; p  0.01), and aggression
(r  0.15; p  0.05). However, no relationship in the Similar to findings reported in Britain, Japan, Ko-
female sample was significant. These results indi- rea, and the United States, the popularity of play-
cate that the playing violent videogames online was ing videogames among adolescents in China was

TABLE 3. COMPARING THE DIFFERENCES IN VIDEOGAME PLAYING HABITS BETWEEN

CHINESE ADOLESCENTS AND THEIR COUNTERPARTS IN SELECTED COUNTRIES

Gamer
Countries population Play time Preferred platforms Top three game genre

U.S.53 92% among those 30 min per day Console games (1) Action-combat
age 8–18. dominate. (2) Sports
(3) Adventure
Britain54 59% among those 21.6 min per day Console games and (1) Simulation
age 6–24. PC games (2) Strategy-role play
dominate (3) Online board games
Japan55 84.7% among those 29 min per day Arcade and home (1) Fantasy
age 7–12. video games (2) Character games
dominate. (3) Series games
Korea56 94.8% among those 30 min to 2 h Online games (1) Online board games
age 9–19. dominate. (2) War simulation
(3) Role play
China (based 78.1% of online 3–4 h per sitting Online games (1) Leisure games
on this game players for 1–2 times dominate. (singing and
study) age 16–22.57 per week dancing)
(2) War simulation
(3) Combat

The United States is the largest video game market in the world, followed by Japan and Britain, which
is the largest market in Europe.
378 WEI

confirmed. The history of playing videogames on tudes toward others. As Hoffman29 argues, empa-
the Internet in China, however, was relatively short, thy plays a major role in the moral development of
less than 2 years for the majority of the 312 surveyed children. When playing violent videogames has a
adolescent Internet users. They typically played negative socializing effect on Chinese adolescents,
about two times in a week; the play time averaged the implications for developing a sense of caring of
3–4 h. Table 3 compares the differences in others and social justice will be far-reaching.
videogame playing habits between Chinese adoles- It is important to note that the results of this study
cents and their counterparts in various countries. are not necessarily causal because data were col-
On the other hand, negative effects of exposure lected in a one-shot survey. Another limitation is the
to violence in online videogames were detected. use of a purposive sample. Future research should
Playing violent videogames was found to be signif- consider a probability sample.
icantly related to greater tolerance of violence, lower
emphatic attitude toward others, and a higher level
of aggression. The strengths of the relationship are
comparable to those studies in Britain38 and the REFERENCES
United States.13 Moreover, results of hierarchical re-
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tained when other variables were taken into con- resource/china-internet-marketing.htm. Accessed
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