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OBJECTIVE: To study cardiac, sleep-related, and emotional reactions to playing violent (VG) versus nonviolent video games (NVG) in adolescents with different gaming habits. METHODS: Thirty boys (aged 13-16 years, standard deviation = 0.9), half of them low-exposed (≤1 h/d) and half high-exposed (≥3 h/d) to violent games, played a VG/NVG for 2 hours during two different evenings in their homes. Heart rate (HR) and HR variability were registered from before start until next morning. A questionnaire about emotional reactions was administered after gaming sessions and a sleep diary on the following mornings. RESULTS: During sleep, there were significant interaction effects between group and gaming condition for HR (means standard errors for low-exposed: NVG 63.8 2.2 and VG 67.7 2.4; for high-exposed: NVG 65.5 1.9 and VG 62.7 1.9; F(1,28) = 9.22, p = .005). There was also a significant interaction for sleep quality (low-exposed: NVG 4.3 0.2 and VG 3.7 0.3); high-exposed: NVG 4.4 0.2 and VG 4.4 0.2; F(1,28) = 3.51, p = .036, one sided), and sadness after playing (low-exposed: NVG 1.0 0.0 and VG 1.4 0.2; high-exposed: NVG 1.2 0.1 and VG 1.1 0.1; (F(1,27) = 6.29, p = .009, one sided). CONCLUSIONS: Different combinations of the extent of (low versus high) previous VG and experimental exposure to a VG or an NVG are associated with different reaction patterns-physiologically, emotionally, and sleep related. Desensitizing effects or selection bias stand out as possible explanations.
Ivarsson et al. (Wed,) studied this question.