Participants were told to hit the mannequin with as many bullets as possible, but they were not told where to aim. After gameplay, participants shot 16 “bullets” from a realistic gun at a life-sized human-shaped mannequin.
In this experiment, participants were randomly assigned to play a violent FPS game with humanoid targets that rewarded headshots, a nonviolent shooting game that punished hits to bull's-eye targets with faces, or a nonviolent non-shooting game.
The head is the smallest lethal target, and requires careful aim to hit. In contrast, violent first-person shooter (FPS) video games reward players for headshots. When shooting a gun at a human target, firearms training instructors teach individuals to shoot for the upper torso because it is the largest lethal target on the human body.
