The Effects of Violent Video Games on Adults with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: A number of concerns have been raised by the lay public regarding the potential negative effects of violent video game exposure among adults with ASD. These concerns have been heightened by research indicating that youth with ASD spend more time playing video games per day than typically developing (TD) youth, are more likely to be at high risk for video game pathology than TD youth, and often report playing games with violent content. However, no study to date has examined whether acute exposure to violent video games increases aggression (a laboratory analogue of violent behavior) among adults with ASD or whether such games elicit more aggression among adults with ASD compared to TD adults. This is the first study to provide evidence bearing on these issues.  

Objectives: 1) To test whether there is an effect of violent game content on aggressive behavior and on two proposed mechanisms of this behavior – aggressive cognition and aggressive affect – and 2) to test whether these effects are more pronounced for adults with ASD compared to TD adults. 

Methods: Participants included 120 adults (60 with ASD, 60 with TD; 9 women in each group) ranging in age from 17 to 25 years (M = 20.48; SD = 1.71). All participants received $20 in exchange for their participation. Adults with ASD were recruited from an interdisciplinary academic medical center specializing in the treatment and diagnosis of ASD; TD adults were recruited primarily through email advertisements and flyers distributed on a university campus. Participants were assigned to play a violent video game or a nonviolent video game prior to completing three aggression-related outcome variables (aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect). Additional measures included the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales (5^thEdition) Abbreviated Battery and the Autism Spectrum Quotient – Short Form.        

Results: Bayes factor model comparisons including aggressive behavior (unprovoked, reactive, and average aggressiveness) as the outcome variable showed modest evidence against any effect of violent content. Model comparisons examining unprovoked aggression indicated that the best-fitting model included group diagnosis only, such that adults with ASD behaved more aggressively than TD adults on this measure, but that the group diagnosis model was only slightly preferred to the null model. Model comparisons examining reactive aggression, average aggressiveness, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect indicated that the null effects model was preferred to a model with violent content only and, importantly, preferred to the model with the interaction term. Follow-up contrasts within each diagnostic group also indicated that the null effects model was slightly preferred to the model with violent content. 

Conclusions: We found modest evidence against the hypothesis that violent video games affect adults with ASD differently than nonviolent video games. Moreover, we found strong evidence against the hypothesis that violent video games affect adults with ASD differently than TD adults. Findings from the current study do not support societal concerns that violent games differentially affect adults with ASD compared to TD adults.