Watching violent Black video game characters increases unconscious bias in White viewers

When people watch violent video game characters, the race of those digital avatars can shape the viewers’ racial biases in real life. A recent experiment published in the International Journal of Psychology found that seeing a Black character perform violent acts increased unconscious prejudice among White participants. Black participants actually reported lower levels of overt racism after watching the same footage.

These results highlight how racial representations in digital media can silently mold the attitudes of different audiences in entirely different ways. Tailson Evangelista Mariano, a researcher at the Catholic University of Pernambuco in Brazil, led the investigation alongside colleagues from Brazil and Portugal. The research team wanted to understand how interactive media impacts the way people view different racial groups.

Most past research on media and prejudice has focused on passive formats like television and movies. Mariano and his team wanted to see if the highly engaging nature of video games produced similar effects. They also wanted to see if the race of the person watching the game changed the outcome.

To do this, the researchers focused on the difference between two types of prejudice: explicit attitudes and implicit attitudes. Explicit attitudes are conscious beliefs that a person will openly admit. For example, a person might express an explicit attitude by agreeing with a racist statement on a survey.

Implicit attitudes are automatic, unconscious associations that a person might not even realize they hold. A person might consciously reject racism but still unconsciously link certain racial groups with negative concepts. To understand how media shapes these hidden biases, the research team looked at two psychological frameworks.

The first framework is evaluative conditioning, which suggests that repeatedly pairing a neutral stimulus with a negative outcome trains the brain to associate the two. If a specific racial group is constantly paired with criminal behavior in media, the viewer’s brain may begin to link that race with danger automatically. The second framework is the general aggression model.

This model proposes that consuming violent media primes the brain to think about aggression and hostility. The research team suspected that violent video games, which frequently depict Black characters in criminal roles, might trigger both of these psychological processes at the same time. They also incorporated the idea of racial identity into their work.

According to psychological theories of identity, people react differently to stereotypes based on their own background. When a person sees a negative portrayal of a group they do not belong to, they are more likely to absorb the stereotype. When a person sees a negative portrayal of their own group, they often experience a psychological defense reaction.

This defense mechanism can lead them to reject the bias and reaffirm their group identity. To test these ideas, the researchers recruited 140 adults online. To ensure the participants were reacting purely to the racial cues and not relying on past gaming habits, the team selected individuals with very little previous video game experience.

The participants were randomly assigned to watch a one-minute video clip from the popular game Grand Theft Auto V. Half of the participants watched a Black character committing violent acts, like physical assaults and weapon use. The other half watched a White character performing the exact same aggressive behaviors in the exact same digital environment.

The video clips were edited to be completely identical in duration, camera angles, and digital settings. The only difference between the two videos was the race of the central character. The creators highlighted visual cues like skin color, facial features, and clothing to make sure the character’s race was obvious.

After the experiment, a manipulation check confirmed that the viewers accurately recognized the race of the character they were watching. Immediately after viewing the video, participants completed a computer-based task called the Implicit Association Test. This test measures unconscious bias by tracking how fast a person matches different concepts on a screen.

The program requires users to pair images of Black and White faces with positive words like “good” and negative words like “bad.” If a person is faster at pairing Black faces with bad words and White faces with good words, the test indicates a higher level of automatic prejudice. Following the computer task, the participants filled out a questionnaire called the Biological Racism Scale.

This survey measured conscious prejudice by asking participants to rate their agreement with statements claiming that certain racial groups are biologically inferior. The results revealed a clear division based on the race of the viewer. For White participants, watching the violent Black character led to a spike in unconscious prejudice on the computer test.

Exposure to the White character did not produce this same effect for White viewers. For Black participants, the race of the digital character had no effect on their unconscious biases. The results for this specific group were not statistically significant in either direction.

The researchers suggest that sharing a racial identity with the character might act as a mental shield, blocking the brain from absorbing the negative stereotype. The explicit survey results showed a completely different pattern. Across the board, White participants showed no change in their conscious, self-reported beliefs, regardless of which video they watched.

The researchers note that explicit prejudice is heavily regulated by social norms. People often suppress conscious racist views to avoid appearing prejudiced to others. This explains why the White participants showed no change on the survey but displayed elevated prejudice on the unconscious computer test.

The two types of bias operate through entirely different mental pathways. Black participants displayed a drop in overt racism scores after viewing the violent Black character. The researchers suspect this reaction stems from a psychological defense mechanism.

When confronted with negative portrayals of their own group, individuals may actively push back against those stereotypes and reaffirm their identity. The researchers believe these findings have practical applications for the video game industry. Game developers should evaluate how they portray racial minorities in their digital worlds.

Incorporating diverse and non-stereotypical representations can help stop the spread of negative automatic biases. Creating complex Black characters in peaceful or heroic roles may counteract existing stereotypes and promote fairness in society. The authors note that game studios could even benefit economically from creating more inclusive media.

Public awareness of representation issues continues to grow, creating a higher consumer demand for diverse games. The study also highlights the need for better media literacy education. Educational programs should aim to teach consumers about the subconscious effects of digital media.

Interactive workshops could help younger audiences think critically about the games they play and develop a natural resistance to biased portrayals. The authors point out a few limitations to their experiment. Because the study relied on short video clips rather than active gameplay, the psychological impact might be different when a person is actually holding a controller.

The brief nature of the video might not fully capture the immersive experience of modern video games. The research team did not pretest the video clips before the main data collection began, which is a standard step in experimental design. The study also relied on a convenience sample of online users.

This group may not perfectly represent the broader population of video game players around the world. Moving forward, the research team hopes to see experiments that involve active gaming sessions. They also suggest testing these ideas with habitual gamers to see if years of exposure to violent digital media alters a person’s baseline reactions.

Finally, they recommend using broader groups of people to see if these patterns hold true over long periods of time and across different cultures. Expanding this line of inquiry will help clarify how interactive entertainment shapes society as a whole.

The study, “The Effects of Violent Video Game Characters’ Race on Implicit and Explicit Racial Attitudes,” was authored by Tailson Evangelista Mariano, Victoria da Costa Perman, Carlos Eduardo Pimentel, Isabella Leandra Silva Santos, and Cícero Roberto Pereira.