Research investigating violent video games tends to focus on negative outcomes such as antisocial behavior and oftentimes ignores questions regarding whether these same violent video games contribute to prosocial behavior. Building on research by Olah (2023), the current study tests a model predicting conditions under which violent video game play can increase prosocial behavior. The model suggests that (1) playing a violent video game increases players’ feelings of guilt, (2) an increase in guilt leads to an increase in approval of deontological moral thinking, and (3) this increased deontological moral thinking leads to an increase in prosocial behavior. Additionally, the model investigates the indirect relationship suggesting that basic psychological need satisfaction can mediate the influence of violent video game play on prosocial behavior. Finally, prior research tends to investigate the influence of violent video game play on moral judgments that are made within a video game, with little attention to game-play’s influence on judgments made outside of a video game. The model tested in the current study attempts to address this oversight by measuring moral judgment made after game play with the moralization of everyday life scale. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two video game conditions, where they played versions of Minecraft that varied only whether the tasks performed by the player to advance through the game were violent or nonviolent acts. In one game version, participants could only kill villagers and livestock. In the other version, participants could only feed villagers and livestock. After playing, participants completed survey items measuring (1) guilt, (2) deontological moral thinking, (3) moral judgment, (4) basic psychological need satisfaction, (5) prosocial behavior, (6) moral self-image, and (7) perceptions of violence, justification, realism, graphicness, and enjoyment. Analyses indicated the violent condition predicted both increases in guilt and basic psychological need satisfaction. Additionally, higher guilt scores predicted higher prosocial behavior. Implications of the model regarding the influence of playing violent video games on judgments outside of game play are discussed.
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