Abstract
Despite a lack of research linking school shootings to video games, video games are frequently associated with school shootings carried out by White perpetrators. Because there is a stereotypical association between racial minorities and violent crime, it is possible that people often look toward video games as a cause for school shootings committed by White perpetrators who do not fit this stereotype. Consistent with this notion, Study 1 (n = 169) found that participants who read a mock news story about a school shooting were more likely to blame video games when the shooter was White than when the shooter was Black. Study 2 examined 204,796 news stories of 204 mass shootings committed in the United States and found that, when a shooting occurred at a school, video games were 8.35 times more likely to be discussed when the shooter was White than when the shooter was Black.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 493-498 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Psychology of Popular Media |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2020 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Applied Psychology
- Communication
- Cultural Studies
- Psychology (miscellaneous)