Personality and Individual Differences 75 (2015) 19–23

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Personality and Individual Differences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Everyday sadism predicts violent video game preferences

Tobias Greitemeyer ⇑
Institute of Psychology, University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Playing violent video games has become an integral part of the lives of many people, although some peo-
Received 28 August 2014 ple more than others may be predisposed to enjoy violent video games. Two cross-sectional studies
Received in revised form 23 October 2014 examined the extent to which everyday sadism predicts the amount of violent video game play. Past
Accepted 28 October 2014
research has shown that everyday sadists obtain pleasure from cruel behaviors. Hence, I reasoned that
Available online 21 November 2014
everyday sadists are drawn to violent video games because killing game characters might be an oppor-
tunity to satisfy their need for cruelty. In fact, results revealed a positive link between everyday sadism
Keywords:
and the amount of violent video game exposure. Moreover, this relation statistically held when control-
Video games
Sadism
ling for the impact of trait aggression, the Big 5, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.
Dark Triad Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Aggression

1. Introduction The main goal of playing a violent video game is to seriously

Playing video games is becoming more and more popular. One
national survey showed that 88% of American youth between ages
8 and 18 play video games (Gentile, 2009). Another survey even
indicated that about 97% of teens play video games regularly
(Lenhart, Kahne, Middaugh, Macgill, Evans, & Vitak, 2008). Content
analyses have shown that most video games contain violence (Dill,
Gentile, Richter, & Dill, 2005) and that violent video games are
highly popular (Buchman & Funk, 1996). The present research
examines whether some individuals are particularly predisposed
to enjoy violent video games. Concretely, I reasoned that individu-
als who score high on the personality trait of sadism would be
more likely than others to play violent video games.
Sadism can be characterized as deriving pleasure from being
responsible for others’ experiences of pain. Everyday sadism is
the nonclinical form of sadism (Buckels, Jones, & Paulhus, 2013a),
‘‘differing from clinical sadism in that the individual does not harm
others out of the need for cruelty but rather for the pleasure
derived from the act’’ (p. 64, Porter, Bhanwer, Woodworth, &
Black, 2014). Recent research has confirmed that everyday sadists
indeed find more pleasure in harming other people than do nonsa-
dists. For example, Buckels et al. (2013a) showed that sadists
obtain pleasure from cruel behaviors and that they are even willing
to work for the opportunity to hurt an innocent victim. Overall, it
appears that everyday sadists more than others seek opportunities
to indulge their appetites for cruelty (see also Buckels, Trapnell, &
Paulhus, 2014).
⇑ Tel.: +43 (0)512 507 37452.
E-mail address: tobias.greitemeyer@uibk.ac.at
harm other game characters. In fact, some modern video games
involve highly realistic depictions of human injury and death.
Moreover, many violent video games are played from a first-person
perspective. In these first-person shooter games, the player experi-
ences the weapon-based combat through the eyes of the player
character. Hence, killing as many game characters as possible dur-
ing violent video game play may be a welcome opportunity for
everyday sadists to satisfy their need for cruelty. This reasoning
is also in line with a uses and gratifications perspective (Katz,
Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974). According to this view, personality
dimensions create certain needs in individuals and these needs
in turn influence what kind of media individuals seek out for
exposure. For instance, in one study (Slater, Henry, Swaim, &
Anderson, 2003), trait aggressiveness was a significant predictor
for the preference for violent media (although only concurrently
but not over time).
Abundant research has shown that playing violent video games
increases aggressive behavior. Although some studies failed to find
a link between violent video game play and aggression (for a
review, Elson & Ferguson, 2014), two recent meta-analyses
(Anderson et al., 2010; Greitemeyer & Mügge, 2014) showed that
playing violent video games significantly increases the accessibility
of aggressive thoughts, hostile affect, and aggressive behavior and
that these effects are consistently found in experimental, cross-
sectional, and longitudinal studies. The present research aims to
document a link between the amount of violent video game
exposure and everyday sadism. Because everyday sadism is related
to trait aggression, I also examined whether the proposed link
between violent video game exposure and everyday sadism would
hold when controlling for the impact of trait aggression.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2014.10.049
0191-8869/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
20 T. Greitemeyer / Personality and Individual Differences 75 (2015) 19–23
Previous research has shown that some of the Big 5 personality
dimensions are related to violent video game preferences.
Anderson et al. (2004) found that violent video game exposure
was negatively associated with agreeableness and conscientious-
ness. Chory and Goodboy (2011) also found that individuals low
(vs. high) in agreeableness are more likely to play violent video
games, but they did not replicate the association between violent
video game exposure and conscientiousness. Instead, they further
found a positive relation between violent video game exposure
and openness. In any case, it appears that everyday sadism is
related to some fundamental personality dispositions and thus
the Big 5 might account for the proposed link between everyday
sadism and amount of violent video game play. Hence, in the
present studies, the Big 5 were assessed and their influence on
the relation between everyday sadism and the amount of violent
video game exposure was also examined.
The hypothesis that everyday sadism predicts amount of violent
video game play was examined in two cross-sectional studies. It
should be noted that due to the correlational nature of the study
design, no causal interpretations can be made. The present
research was interested in the extent to which everyday sadism
predicts violent video game exposure. But violent video game
exposure may also cause everyday sadism. In fact, the two
directions are by no means mutually exclusive. I will return to this
issue in the General Discussion.
2. Study 1
Study 1 examines the idea that everyday sadism is associated
with violent video game exposure. In a cross-sectional study, par-
ticipants indicated their amount of playing violent video games
and provided self-ratings of everyday sadism. Moreover, partici-
pants responded to a measure of trait aggression and the Big 5. I
predicted that everyday sadism would be positively associated
with amount of violent video game exposure. I further examined
whether this effect would remain significant when controlling for
the influence of trait aggression and the Big 5.
2.1. Method
2.1.1. Participants, procedure, and materials
Participants were invited via a university mailing list. Four
hundred and forty-five individuals accepted the invitation. Two
hundred and twenty individuals did not complete the question-
naire so the final sample comprised 225 students/employees of
an Austrian university (162 females, 63 males; mean age = 25.1
years, SD = 8.0).
After providing demographic data, participants were asked to
name their three favorite video games, to indicate how often they
play each video game (on a scale from 1 = sometimes to 7 = very
often), and to rate how violent the content of each video game
was (on a scale from 1 = not at all to 7 = very). For each video game,
the amount of time playing was multiplied by violent content.
These three violent video game exposure scores were summed to
provide an overall index of violent video game exposure. This
approach to measure violent video game exposure has been suc-
cessfully employed in previous video game research (e.g.,
Anderson & Dill, 2000; Greitemeyer, 2014).
The expanded version of the Comprehensive Assessment of
Sadistic Tendencies (Buckels, Jones, & Paulhus, 2013b) was used
to assess physical and verbal sadism, respectively.1 The physical
sadism scale contains five items (a = .67). Sample items are: ‘‘I enjoy
1
The CAST also assesses a third form of sadistic tendencies (vicarious sadism), but
this scale was not included in the present studies.
physically hurting people’’ and ‘‘I enjoy tormenting people’’. The ver-
bal sadism scale contains six items (a = .70). Sample items are: ‘‘I
enjoy making jokes at the expense of others’’ and ‘‘When making
fun of someone, it is especially amusing if they realize what I’m
doing’’. To measure trait aggression, participants responded to the
short version of the Buss and Perry aggression questionnaire
(Bryant & Smith, 2001), which contains 12 items (a = .79). Sample
items are: ‘‘Given enough provocation, I may hit another person.’’
and ‘‘I have trouble controlling my temper.’’ To measure the Big 5,
a 10-item measure (Gosling, Rentfrow, & Swann, 2003) was
employed. There are two items per scale. Some scale reliabilities
were relatively poor (conscientiousness: a = .71, neuroticism:
a = .58, openness: a = .44, agreeableness: a = .46, extraversion:
a = .72). This issue will be later discussed. All items were assessed
on a scale from 1 to 7. For all scales, items were pooled, using the
average.
2.2. Results
Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations of all measures are
shown in Table 1. As expected, amount of violent video game play
was positively associated with both physical and verbal sadism.
Amount of violent video game play was also positively associated
with trait aggression and negatively with conscientiousness and
agreeableness. To examine whether physical and verbal sadism,
respectively, are associated with amount of violent video game
play when controlling for the impact of trait aggression and the
Big 5, a multiple regression was performed on the data. Physical,
verbal sadism, trait aggression, and the Big 5 were used as predic-
tors for amount of violent video game play. The overall regression
was significant, F(8, 216) = 3.57, p = .001. Most importantly, both
physical, b = .16, p = .028, and verbal sadism, b = .17, p = .028, were
still significantly associated with amount of violent video game
play. Conscientiousness also significantly predicted amount of vio-
lent video game play, b = .15, p = .036, whereas all other predic-
tors did not, all bs < .10, all ps > .271.
2.3. Discussion
Study 1 provided support for the idea that everyday sadism is
associated with exposure to violent video games. As in previous
research (Anderson et al., 2010; Greitemeyer & Mügge, 2014),
there was a significant correlation between the amount of violent
video game play and trait aggression. There was also a strong link
between the measures of everyday sadism and trait aggression. It
is noteworthy, however, that the relation between everyday sad-
ism and violent video game exposure held when controlling for
trait aggression. That is, that frequent players of violent video game
score higher on everyday sadism is not due to them being more
aggressive. Likewise, amount of violent video game play and sad-
ism were negatively associated with agreeableness, but the rela-
tion between violent video game exposure and everyday sadism
remained significant when controlling for agreeableness. Finally,
violent video game exposure and conscientiousness were also sig-
nificantly related, but there was no reliable link between everyday
sadism and conscientiousness. Overall, it appears that there is a
robust association between everyday sadism and the amount of
violent video game exposure.
Everyday sadism has been shown to be a part of the Dark Tetrad
of personality, the other dimensions being narcissism, Machiavel-
lianism, and psychopathy (Buckels et al., 2013a; Chabrol, Van
Leeuwen, Rodgers, & Séjourné, 2009; for a review of the Dark Triad,
see Furnham, Richards, & Paulhus, 2013). Narcissists tend to have a
grandiose sense of self-importance and a sense of superiority.
Machiavellianism can be characterized as having a tendency to
manipulate and exploit others. Psychopathy involves callousness
 T. Greitemeyer / Personality and Individual Differences 75 (2015) 19–23 21

Table 1
Means, standard deviations, and bivariate correlations (Study 1).

M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1. VVE 5.66 14.20
2. Physical sadism 1.35 0.60 .25***
3. Verbal sadism 2.39 1.05 .25*** .43***
4. Trait aggression 2.39 0.83 .14* .34*** .44***
5. Extraversion 4.16 1.50 .01 .03 .07 .12
6. Agreeableness 5.44 1.08 .18** .24*** .32*** .44*** .13
7. Conscientiousness 5.38 1.25 .17** .12 .11 .33*** .05 .22**
8. Neuroticism 3.08 1.31 .03 .02 .02 .39*** .36** .09 .19**
9. Openness 5.47 1.09 .04 .02 .03 .08 .28*** .10 .16* .19**

Note: VVE = violent video game exposure.

*
p < .05.
**
p < .01.
***
p < .001.

and unemotionality. Recent research (James, Kavanagh, Jonason,
Chonody, & Scrutton, 2014) has shown that higher levels of the
Dark Triad are associated with higher levels of sensational interests
(e.g., an interest in violent topics such as weapons and military).
Hence, I expected that all three concepts would be related to vio-
lent video game preferences. Study 1 showed that everyday sadism
was still associated with the amount of violent video game play
when controlling for the impact of trait aggression and the Big 5.
Study 2 further examined whether the link between everyday sad-
ism and violent video game exposure holds when also controlling
for narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy.
3. Study 2
3.1. Method
3.1.1. Participants, procedure, and materials
As in Study 1, participants of an Austrian university were
invited via a university mailing list. Seven hundred and forty-eight
individuals accepted the invitation, but only 340 individuals com-
pleted the questionnaire (235 females, 105 males; mean
age = 24.2 years, SD = 7.0).
The procedure and the materials were similar to Study 1,
with the following modifications. A different 10-item measure of
the Big 5 (Rammstedt & John, 2007) was employed (conscientious-
ness: a = .48, neuroticism: a = .69, openness: a = .51, agreeable-
ness: a = .32, extraversion: a = .78). To measure narcissism,
Machiavellianism, and psychopathy, a 12-item measure of the
Dark Triad, with four items per subscale, was used (Jonason &
Webster, 2010). Sample items are: ‘‘I tend to want others to admire
me’’ (narcissism, a = .64), ‘‘I tend to manipulate others to get my
way’’ (Machiavellianism, a = .72), and ‘‘I tend to be callous or
insensitive’’ (psychopathy, a = .51). Everyday sadism (physical
sadism: a = .51, verbal sadism: a = .68) and trait aggression
(a = .81) were assessed as in Study 1.
3.2. Results
Descriptive statistics and intercorrelations of all measures are
shown in Table 2. As in Study 1, amount of violent video game play
was positively associated with physical sadism. Unlike Study 1, the
correlation between amount of violent video game play and verbal
sadism was only marginally significant (p = .073). The correlation
between amount of violent video game play and trait aggression
was also only marginally significant (p = .081). Amount of violent
video game play was negatively associated with conscientiousness
and positively with openness. Amount of violent video game play
was also positively associated with Machiavellianism and
psychopathy.
Next, I examined whether physical and verbal sadism, respec-
tively, would be associated with amount of violent video game play
when controlling for the impact of trait aggression, the Big 5,
narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. In a multiple
regression, physical, verbal sadism, trait aggression, the Big 5,
narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy were used as
predictors for amount of violent video game play. The overall
regression was significant, F(11, 328) = 4.50, p < .001. Physical
sadism, b = .17, p = .008, was significantly associated with amount
of violent video game play, whereas verbal sadism was not,
b = .03, p = .638. Conscientiousness, b = .22, p < .001, and open-
ness, b = .16, p = .002, also significantly predicted amount of violent
video game play, whereas all other predictors did not, all bs < .13,
all ps > .089.
3.3. Discussion
Study 2 replicated some of the main findings from Study 1, but
there were also some notable differences. There was a positive
association between amount of violent video game play and phys-
ical sadism, but the association between amount of violent video
game play and verbal sadism was only marginally significant.
Moreover, when controlling for the impact of trait aggression,
the Big 5, narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy the rela-
tion between violent video game play and physical sadism held,
whereas the relation between violent video game play and verbal
sadism was far from significant. It thus appears that physical more
than verbal sadism is a predictor of the amount of violent video
game play. This may not surprise because typical violent video
game play involves performing physical but no verbal harm so
individuals who score high on physical sadism should be particu-
larly likely to satisfy their individual needs when playing violent
video games.
Extending Study 1, Study 2 showed that violent video game play
exposure was significantly associated with two of the other dimen-
sions of the Dark Tetrad. Whereas Machiavellianism and psychop-
athy were associated with amount of violent video game play,
narcissism was not. This latter finding is in contrast with
Anderson et al. (2004) who found a positive correlation between
violent video game exposure and narcissism. As in previous
research (e.g., Buckels et al., 2013a; Chabrol et al., 2009), everyday
sadism was related to narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychop-
athy. Hence, it is noteworthy that the link between amount of vio-
lent video game play and physical sadism held when controlling
for the other dimensions of the Dark Tetrad, whereas the influence
of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy did not. In sum,
of the dimensions of the Dark Tetrad it turned out that physical
sadism was the best predictor of amount of violent video game
play.
22 T. Greitemeyer / Personality and Individual Differences 75 (2015) 19–23

Table 2
Means, standard deviations, and bivariate correlations (Study 2).

M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1. VVE 8.66 17.96
2. Physical sadism 1.31 0.46 .21***
3. Verbal sadism 2.30 0.97 .10 .45***
4. Trait aggression 2.47 0.91 .10 .39*** .41***
5. Extraversion 4.43 1.55 .09 .03 .08 .00
6. Agreeableness 4.33 1.29 .08 .22*** .25*** .34*** .22***
7. Conscientiousness 4.81 1.25 .25*** .19** .25*** .25*** .14** .11*
8. Neuroticism 3.68 1.54 .02 .05 .04 .28*** .30*** .09 .10
9. Openness 5.36 1.35 .15** .01 .09 .09 .06 .08 .02 .02
10. Narcissism 4.67 1.59 .03 .26*** .30*** .21*** .23*** .10 .06 .15** .01
11. Machiavellianism 2.78 1.49 .12* .44*** .46*** .38*** .04 .40*** .23*** .11* .10 .52***
12. Psychopathy 3.56 1.26 .13* .33*** .37*** .45*** .01 .38*** .13* .06 .08 .57*** .57***

Note: VVE = violent video game exposure.

*
p < .05.
**
p < .01.
***
p < .001.

4. General discussion
The present work examined the extent to which everyday sad-
ism predicts the amount of violent video game play. I reasoned that
everyday sadists are drawn to violent video games because playing
these games offers an opportunity to satisfy their needs for cruelty.
In fact, in both studies, physical sadism was associated with the
amount of violent video game play. This relation held when con-
trolling for a variety of variables (i.e., verbal sadism, trait aggres-
sion, Big 5, Dark Triad) that were related to both the amount of
violent video game play and physical sadism and thus could have
accounted for the finding that individuals who score high on the
physical sadism scale were more likely than others to play violent
video games. In Study 1, verbal sadism was also a significant pre-
dictor of amount of violent video game play, whereas in Study 2
this relation was only marginally significant and was far from sig-
nificant when controlling for third variables. Physical sadism is clo-
ser to aggression performed during violent video game play than
verbal sadism and thus physical sadism in particular appears to
motivate violent video game play.
The present research is the first that examined the link between
everyday sadism and amount of violent video game play. It is also
the first that examined to what extent the Dark Triad predict expo-
sure to violent video games. Whereas Machiavellianism and psy-
chopathy significantly predicted the amount of violent video
game play, narcissism did not. However, when controlling for
everyday sadism, any predictive power of the Dark Triad was elim-
inated. Overall, it appears that of the Dark Tetrad, sadism had the
most robust association with amount of violent video game play.
The present study focused on the extent to which everyday sad-
ism predicts the amount of violent video game play. However, due
to the correlational design, the exact causal direction cannot be
determined. In fact, the relationship between everyday sadism
and violent video game use is likely bidirectional and can be
derived from two hypotheses. According to the selection hypothe-
sis, individuals who score high on everyday sadism are more
attracted to violent video games. According to the socialization
hypothesis, playing violent video games makes the players more
sadistic. Overall, sadistic individuals may prefer the content of vio-
lent video games in the first place, and their sadistic tendencies are
then further strengthened by playing violent video games. Future
work, employing experimental and longitudinal designs, is needed
to disentangle these possibilities.
A limitation of the present work is the reliance on self-report
measures. It should be also conceded that some of the scales evi-
denced poor reliabilities. In particular, some of the Big 5 scales
did not prove reliable. It is noteworthy that poor reliabilities have
been also reported by other researchers using a 10-item short ver-
sion of the Big Five Inventory. For instance, Sandstrom and Dunn
(2014) reported reliability coefficients as low as a = .24. Although
the focus of the present research was on the predictive power of
everyday sadism on violent video game preferences and the Big 5
only served as control variables, future work would be desirable
that makes use of one of the existing longer measures of the Big 5.
Future research may also examine the link between everyday
sadism and other forms of video game play. The present studies
showed that everyday sadism was positively associated with the
amount of violent video game play, but everyday sadists should
not enjoy all types of video games. In fact, everyday sadism may
be even negatively associated with some kind of video game play.
For example, prosocial video game play involves benefiting other
game characters, whereas cooperative video game play involves
benefiting other human players and recent research has shown that
playing these games increase prosocial and decrease aggressive out-
comes (for reviews, Greitemeyer, 2011; Greitemeyer & Mügge,
2014). Inasmuch as sadists are unlikely to experience pleasure when
benefiting others, everyday sadism should be negatively associated
with prosocial and cooperative video game play. Such a finding
would further strengthen the idea that everyday sadists are partic-
ularly attracted to video games that satisfy their needs for cruelty.
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