Role of Internal Health Belief, Catharsis Seeking, and Self-Efficacy in Game Players' Aggression

It is time to pursue a new perspective on players' aggression studies. In this study, we examined whether and how players' aggression is affected by game usage. In contrast to most existing studies, our study asks about crucial underlying factors among the general game population and thereby investigates therapeutic factors (internal health status belief, game and life self-efficacy, and therapeutic catharsis seeking), psychological problems (depression, loneliness), and demographic variables (age, gender). A sample of 918 players was recruited through the Internet and asked to fill out a questionnaire. Results show that players who reported higher levels of internal health status belief, game and life self-efficacy, therapeutic catharsis seeking, depression, and loneliness showed significantly decreased degrees of aggression. By revealing the crucial role of health belief, mood repair, mood management theory, use and gratification theory, as well as aggression catharsis effects as underlying concepts of players' aggression, our results provide a deeper insight into mechanisms of aggression alleviation in game studies.