Violent Video Games and Aggression Among Young Adults: The Moderating Effects of Adverse Environmental Factors

When Games Influence Words: Gaming Addiction among College Students Increases Verbal Aggression through Risk-Biased Drifting in Decision-Making

Increased aggression due to gaming addiction is a widespread and highly publicized problem. The underlying processes by which verbal aggression, a more harmful and persistent subcategory of aggression, is affected by gaming addiction may differ from other types of aggression. In this study, data came from 252 randomly recruited current university students (50.79% male, mean age 19.60 years, SD: 1.44 years, range 17 to 29 years). Participants reported gaming addiction and different types of aggression through questionnaires. In addition, two important explanatory processes, inhibitory control, and risk preference, were measured through behavioral experiments. A Bayesian hierarchical drift-diffusion model was employed to interpret the data from the risk preference task. In contrast to previous work, the study found that inhibitory control did not significantly correlate with either gaming addiction or any form of aggression However, the drift rate, a measure of decision-making inclination under risk, partially mediates the relationship between gaming addiction and verbal aggression (but not other forms of aggression). The findings illuminate risk preference under adverse conditions as a key predictor of verbal aggression, offering avenues for early intervention and suggesting game design modifications to mitigate verbal aggression by adjusting reward mechanisms.

Guarding against COVID-19 vaccine hesitance in Ghana: analytic view of personal health engagement and vaccine related attitude

Vaccination is the most effective preventive measure against COVID-19 spread. While the WHO and other stakeholders fear vaccine nationalism, vaccine-hesitancy has become a topical issue among experts. Based on the evidence of vaccine hesitancy among Blacks, we explore the interrelatedness of psycho-social factors (personal health engagement, fear of COVID-19, perceived susceptibility, and vaccine-related attitude) likely to thwart vaccine acceptance in Africa. We sampled 1768 Ghanaian adults over 2 weeks from December 14, 2020, the first day a successful COVID-19 vaccine was administered in the US using an online survey. A higher level of personal health engagement was found to promote vaccine-related attitudes while reducing COVID-19 related fears, susceptibility, and vaccine hesitancy. Fear of COVID-19 and perceived vulnerability are significant contributors to the willingness to accept vaccination. This is an indication that health engagement alone will not promote vaccination willingness, but the fear and higher level of perceived susceptibility out of personal evaluation are essential factors in vaccination willingness. We recommend promoting health educational messages on COVID-19 vaccination ahead of any vaccination rollout in Africa, and such messages should contain some element of fear appeal.