He does not look like video games made him do it: Racial stereotypes and school shootings.

Patrick M. Markey, James D. Ivory, Erica B. Slotter, Mary Beth Oliver, Omar Maglalang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Scopus citations

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. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)493-498
Number of pages6
JournalPsychology of Popular Media
Volume9
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2020

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Applied Psychology
  • Communication
  • Cultural Studies
  • Psychology (miscellaneous)

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