Brand Memory, Attitude, and State Aggression in Violent Games: Focused on the Roles of Arousal, Negative Affect, and Spatial Presence

Violent games have increasingly gained their market share in recent video game markets. They have attracted much attention due to their potential effects on users in advertising and aggression. However, little research has investigated such effects considering both user aggression and persuasion mechanism in virtual space. Based on the general aggression model and the presence theory, the current study examines the effects of realistic violence cues (blood and screams) and trait aggression on brand memory, attitude change toward brands in the game, and state aggression through physiological arousal (i.e., Skin conductance level), negative affect and spatial presence. Results show that violence cues affect both arousal and negative affect, and in turn the negative affect changes attitude toward brands negatively and increases the degree of state aggression. Trait aggression enhances presence, and the spatial presence strongly affects brand memory. Results and implications are discussed.