The study was to examine the gender differences in aggression among Chinese children after playing violent computer games by using emotional STROOP task. 98 children participated in this study, with 49 assigned to violent computer game group and the other 49 assigned to nonviolent computer game group. The results demonstrated that there were significant differences in main affect of game type, and significant Game Type × Gender interaction as well. In particular, boys’ aggression was significantly impacted by violent games, whereas girls’ aggression was not significantly impacted by violent games. The implication of this research is that, the significant difference in aggression to gender is activated, and that boys were more aggressive and sensitive to violent games than girls.

The significance of this study was to find whether violent stimuli exposure could escalate the following levels of aggression in order to better cultivate aggression education among contemporary undergraduates in China. This study mainly tested the effects of violent stimuli on aggression by employing modified Stroop task. A total of 188 undergraduates participated in this study. Results showed that undergraduates exposing to violent stimuli exhibited high levels of aggression, whereas undergraduates who exposed to non-violent stimuli displayed low levels of aggression. Specifically, males, but not females, manifested high levels of aggression after exposure to violent stimuli. Moreover, viewers with high-aggressiveness (HA), but not with moderate-aggressiveness (MA) and low-aggressiveness (LA), showed high levels of aggression after exposure to violent stimuli via internet.

Two aggression questionnaires, the Revised Swedish Version (AQ-RSV) of the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) and the shortened and refined version by Bryant and Smith (BS-AQ) were compared. Both questionnaires identified subscore levels of aggression and there were significant differences between the groups. On the AQ-RSV subscales, the violent inmates showed statistically significantly more aggression for Hostility (p = 0.000), Anger (p = 0.000), Physical Aggression (p = 0.000) and Verbal Aggression (p = 0.01) than the healthy (non-violent) men. The bodybuilders, all “on” performance-enhancing substances, scored significantly higher on the Physical Aggression subscale than the healthy men (p = 0.000). Compared to the bodybuilders, the violent inmates scored significantly higher on the Anger (p = 0.02) and Hostility (p = 0.002) subscales. For the BS-AQ, where general variance was higher than for the original AQ, some of the above mentioned relationships were different. The violent inmates still scored significantly higher than the healthy men for Hostility (p = 0.000), Anger (p = 0.006) and Physical Aggression (p = 0.000), but not for Verbal Aggression. The inmates scored significantly higher than the bodybuilders for Anger (p = 0.006) and Verbal Aggression (p = 0.006), and the bodybuilders scored higher than the healthy men on the Physical Aggression (p = 0.002) subscale only. These and other more complex relationships are discussed in the light of previous findings. Thus the BS-AQ resulted in more sharply defined relationships and, at the same time, showed some important differences between the groups studied. Verbal Aggression does not seem to distinguish violent inmates from healthy men. Angry bodybuilders tend to express their aggression through Physical Aggression.