| This study mainly aims to extend third-person effect research into a cross-cultural context. The third-person effect refers to people's tendency to overestimate media effects on others than on self, and to date there is no study which compares the third-person effects of violent video games in a cross-cultural setting. In order to identify the roles of the third-person perception in behaviors, the study explores: 1) how the cultural values of individualism, collectivism and uncertainty avoidance contribute to both third-person perceptions and support for regulation, and 2) whether the positive or negative framing of news about violent video games changes previous third-person perceptions and subsequent support for any regulation of video games. Based on a survey with 331 respondents (161 Americans and 170 Koreans), the study investigates the relationships among the cultural values and third-person perceptions. In this process, the present study posits that individualism and collectivism do not constitute a bi-polar continuum but rather work independently as two separate concepts. The study's results were that individualism closely associates with third-person perceptions, but not with support for the regulation of violent video games. Instead, collectivism and uncertainty-avoidance play crucial roles in the support of regulation. That is, though people in higher individualist societies have a higher degree of third-person perceptions than people in higher collectivist societies have, they are less likely to support the regulation of violent video games. The study also examines how news coverage primes people's evaluations of harmful media content. In this quasi-experiment, a total of 432 participants (227 Americans and 205 Koreans) were requested to read either a positively or a negatively framed news article about violent video games. After comparing the control groups, the results indicated that those who were exposed to positively framed news coverage had decreased perceived media effects and less support for the regulation of violent video games, while those who were exposed to negatively framed news coverage did not show such differences. That is to say, only the positively framed news story was shown to prime the respondents' schema and to lessen their support for regulation. |
