Part of the fun of video games is the chance to inhabit an exciting fictional world. So do people who play these games feel free to behave immorally toward the characters on screen?
Not according to a new study from Indiana University. Researchers there asked 75 undergraduate volunteers—experienced gamers all—to fill out a “moral foundations questionnaire” and play the game Fallout 3.
In their behavior toward nonplayer game characters, most of the volunteers applied the same morals they’d use in interacting with humans. Their questionnaires predicted how they would behave, and when they behaved antisocially, they felt guilt. As the researchers put it, “This exploratory study indicates that moral decisions in games largely play out the same way that moral judgments in real-world interactions would.”
Playing video games may give people the chance to take on a fantasy role and escape into an alternate universe, but evidently players bring their ethics with them.