Take 126 college students, assign them to two random groups and ask them to play a violent video game: Saints Row 2.
Give each group a different goal: break out of prison, or local a chapel within the game's city. Then ask them some questions
Here's the twist in a new study released today: While all the participants were white, half were assigned a black avatar as their game identity, while the other half were assigned a white avatar.
Here's what researchers at Ohio State University discovered: Players who had the violent prison-breakout task and who played as a black character ended up with more negative attitude towards blacks in general after the gaming session was over.
The players who used a black avatar not only acted more aggressively after the game, but tended to agree more with statements such as, "It's really a matter of some people not trying hard enough; if blacks would only try harder they could be just as well off as whites."
The participants were also shown black and white faces, and asked to quickly link the image to either good words ("joy," "love" or "peace") or a negative word ("terrible," "horrible," or "evil.") If it took much longer for a participant to link a black face to a pleasant word than it it took for a white face, it was assumed an unconscious bias existed.
And our gamers? Those who played as blacks proved more likely to subsequently display that bias.
While "putting yourself in someone else's shoes" has always been seen as a good tool to encourage empathy and reduce prejudice, this research showed it might not be very effective.
"Usually, taking the perspective of a minority person is seen as a good thing, as a way to evoke empathy," said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study. "But if white people are fed a media diet that shows blacks as violent, they don't have a realistic view of black people. It isn't good to put yourself in the shoes of a murderer, as you do in many of these violent games."
(The study did not address avatars that are turquoise, as in "Avatar.")