Nothing to Fear? Fear Responses to Video Games

• In Event: ICA Plenary Interactive Paper/Poster Session and Reception
  In Interactive Paper Session: Mass Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

A survey of 269 college-aged individuals was conducted to examine reports of fright experiences caused by video games. The results of this study reveal that, similar to other media, video games can indeed evoke fear experiences with over half of the participants reporting game-induced fear. Sex, sensation seeking, and empathy all emerged as important individual differences in fright experience in terms of enjoyment of frightening content, consumption of frightening content, and frequency of fright experience. Participants identified interactivity as a significant contributor to fear. Presentations of realism in terms of both graphical integrity and real world potentiality evoked fear. This study provides the first identification of game titles, stimuli, and features specific to this medium that affect the fright experience.

Authors

• Teresa Lynch, Indiana University

• Nicole Martins, Indiana U