War-themed first person shooters: Relationships with pro-American attitudes and racial stereotyping of Arabs

The current exploratory study is the first to empirically examine whether players of war-themed First Person Shooters display more positive attitudes towards U.S. warfare and more racist attitudes towards Arabs than players of other (violent) games, and non-players. For this purpose, online questionnaires from 140 male Dutch respondents were analyzed. Our findings indicate that players of war games display more favorable attitudes towards American warfare, and display more racist attitudes towards Arabs than players of other violent games, players of non-violent games, and males who do not play video games. These relations are influenced by the perceived realism of the game and wishful identification with the game characters. Results are discussed within the concept of entertainment as war propaganda.