Violent Video Games Can Cause the Macbeth Effect
Inexperienced players of violent games are more likely “to want to wash away their sins.” That is to say that they are faster than the average person to purchase hygienic products. The phenomenon is known as the Macbeth-effect.
Researchers from the University of Luxembourg recruited a group of gamers that consisted of both experienced and inexperienced players and made them play violent games for fifteen minutes. After the play session the group of 76 subjects were asked to choose a gift from a list of products.
The inexperienced players tend to opt for hygienic products such as shower gel, deodorant and toothpaste. The inexperienced players thus showing that behavior in psychology known as the Macbeth effect, or the tendency to want to clean yourself after a shameful act. The inexperienced players would wish to keep their “moral purity” intact, thinks Andre Melzer, head of the research team.
The effect is named after a scene from the Shakespeare play in which Lady Macbeth suffers from guilt after a dream about the murder of the king. This act was characterized with large amounts of blood, that she tried to wash her hands. The researchers are now suggesting that even inexperienced players of violent games suffer from remorse. Gamers that play violent games more, apparently has not been bothered by the Macbeth effect.
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