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# Study: shooters about terrorism intensify negative stereotypes about Arabs, even when there are no Arabs in the game
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/study-shooters-about-terrorism-intensify-negative-stereotypes-about-arabs-even-when-there-are-no-arabs-game/
- Published: 2013-01-16T16:59:59.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T14:43:01.000Z
- Description: That’s the conclusion reached by a University of Michigan study published in the January issue of Psychology of Violence: [Researchers] Saleem and Anderson recruited 204 participants, randomly assigning them to play one of three video games for 30 minutes. Two of the games were versions of “Counter-
- Author: Joseph Bernstein
- Tags: News, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

That’s the conclusion reached by [a University of Michigan study](http://www.ns.umich.edu/new/releases/21091-violent-video-games-may-intensify-anti-arab-stereotypes?ref=killscreen.com) published in the January issue of Psychology of Violence:

> \[Researchers\] Saleem and Anderson recruited 204 participants, randomly assigning them to play one of three video games for 30 minutes. Two of the games were versions of “Counter-Strike,” one with Arab terrorists and the other with Russian terrorists. The third game was a nonviolent golf game.  
>  
> After playing the games, the researchers assessed participants’ levels of prejudice against Arabs using direct measures such as attitude questionnaires as well as indirect measures such as drawings.  
>  
> The standard tests showed that playing violent video games, even those featuring Russians as terrorists, increased anti-Arab attitudes. And the drawing test showed the same effect. Participants who played a terrorism-themed video game were more likely than those who played the golf game to draw Arabs with stereotypical traits and Arab men with weapons and angry expressions on their faces.

A sample drawing from the study:

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/previously/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/video-games-intesify-antiarab-stereotypes-lead-20130115.jpg)