Scientific evidence that video games cause violence?

[Endercreeper01]

Is there any scientific evidence that video games actually cause violence? Or is it just a nocebo, where people who believe bad video games will make them aggressive become violent when they play bad video games?

[Lightmeow]

Probably not... Unless you have someone rage quit and hit a person when they throw their council out their window.

 

But serously, no. There have been many studies, and the results have basically all been biased. Hey, playing GTA encourages violence, but that doesn't mean that I am going to go out and do anything...

[ajb]

Hey, playing GTA encourages violence, but that doesn't mean that I am going to go out and do anything...

It maybe much more subtle than that...maybe it courses desensitisation to violence.

 

One may argue that violent films, violent sport etc also have the same effect, but the difference must be in the level of actual participation.

 

But is our society actually getting more violent?

 

As for what the real scientific evidence is I have no idea.

[swansont]

 

But is our society actually getting more violent?

 

 

In the US, the trend has been decreasing violent crime overall for the last 20 years, though it may have plateaued in the last few. One hypothesis is that reduction in lead poisoning (eliminated in gasoline and paint) is a driver of this.

 

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-link-gasoline

[iNow]

There is also a cause and effect question at play here. Do violent video games lead people to be more violent or do people with predispositions toward violence tend to play violent video games more often?

 

There is the desensitization question that ajb raised, but there too we just don't see the numbers (at least not if we maintain the important distinction between violence and aggression). There are literally millions and millions of players of violent video games, and only a small handful (like less than a hundred, I suspect) ever commit a violent crime.

 

Japan is a nice example here (especially in context of the gun debate), as they tend to play more violent video games per capita than nearly any other country on the planet and yet their rate of violent crime and murder is incredibly low. At the very least, Japan reminds us that there are other far more important variables at play here than just the one-dimensional and overly-simplistic conclusion that "he used to play a lot of first person shooters on his Xbox so that must be why he committed this crime."

 

The results on this question are mixed, and researchers disagree on whether or not violent video games lead to violence in life. In my opinion, though, violent video games are just a modern scapegoat, much like scary movies and rock'n'roll music and skateboarding etceteras used to be.

[iNow]

More in the following (well summarized) overview article:

 

 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/body/what-science-knows-about-video-games-and-violence/

Given that first-person shooters represent a $5 billion market, played by millions of people every day, it’s a scary possibility, and one pushed into the national discussion soon after it was reported that Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people in Newtown, Connecticut, was an avid Call of Duty player. Also disturbing, however, is the possibility that first-person shooters don’t influence real-world violence and are less a genuine suspect than a convenient scapegoat. After all, it’s easier to talk about fake blood than real behavior.

 

Not surprisingly, people have turned to science for answers on the question of violence and video games. For now, though, there are no answers, at least not of the quantitative, immediately useful variety. Some researchers argue that video games like first-person shooters indeed influence violent behavior—not causing it in some simple, linear way, but making it more likely to occur. Other researchers say this link doesn’t exist. Still others say it might, but it’s impossible to say right now. What’s possible to know scientifically quickly gives way to uncertainty and intuition.

[iNow]

Although, there's this now:

 

http://neurosciencenews.com/frustration-failure-video-game-rage-psychology-933/

The disturbing imagery or violent storylines of videos games like World of Warcraft or Grand Theft Auto are often accused of fostering feelings of aggression in players. But a new study shows hostile behavior is linked to gamers’ experiences of failure and frustration during play—not to a game’s violent content.

 

The study is the first to look at the player’s psychological experience with video games instead of focusing solely on its content. Researchers found that failure to master a game and its controls led to frustration and aggression, regardless of whether the game was violent or not. The findings of the study were published online in the March edition of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

 

<...>

 

Ryan says that many critics of video games have been premature in their conclusions that violent video games cause aggression. “It’s a complicated area, and people have simplistic views,” he explains, noting that nonviolent games like Tetris or Candy Crush can leave players as, if not more, aggressive than games with violence, if they’re poorly designed or too difficult.

[iNow]

Sorry for the serial posting, but on a more serious note:

 

 

[Marshalscienceguy]

Is there any scientific evidence that video games actually cause violence? Or is it just a nocebo, where people who believe bad video games will make them aggressive become violent when they play bad video games?

The issue with this idea is that there is too many factors in what causes a person to turn bad. There is some people that simply seem to be messed up from birth. Jeffrey dohmers parents divorced and he became a killer does that mean all children with divorce parents become killers? Also children have to deal with violence. That is part of growing up. We all have to deal with anger, sadness and heartache. Simply cutting them off and telling them Anger is not a normal emotion and they cant ever feel it is not healthy. If we shield children from this kind of stuff they wont know how to handle it when they do feel it actually happen.

[swansont]

Just ran across this

 

"No link found between movie, video game violence and societal violence"

 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-11/ica-nlf102814.php

[Willie71]

Just ran across this

 

"No link found between movie, video game violence and societal violence"

 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-11/ica-nlf102814.php

 

 

This is an interesting take on the issue. One would need to prorate the decrease in crime in general over the time period and try to attribute a specific causal relationship to numerous variables and control for them .

 

The studies that do this show that well adjusted kids are much better able to distinguish between fantasy and reality, but at risk kids don't fare as well. The desensitization to violence is well established, but the link to desensitization and committing violence is less well defined. Its an interesting topic, and one that has been discussed many times at my previous job, where I worked doing assessments and treatment with young offenders and their families.

[Delta1212]

There is also a cause and effect question at play here. Do violent video games lead people to be more violent or do people with predispositions toward violence tend to play violent video games more often?

 

And possibly not even that. The typical mass shooting that gets pinned on violent games is perpetrated by a young male.

 

What do you think is the percentage of young US males that have could not be described as having played violent videogames before?

 

It's a bit like trying to correlate shooters with the behavior of pointing your finger in the shape of a gun. You might very well be able to say that most of them have done it, and it sounds vaguely ominous and you could create a mental association between the two behaviors, but is it really indicative of anything if practically everyone has done it at least once?

 

Are violent people more likely to play violent videogame a than the average population, or do so many people play violent videogames that practically anyone who has committed a violent act has probably played one at some time or another? These days that can be difficult to tell.

[MonDie]

same meta analysis as other thread

 

Craig A. Anderson and Brad J. Bushman

http://public.psych.iastate.edu/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/01AB.pdf

 

While all the cited experiments found an effect, they found varying effect sizes (r₊), as seen when they separate inanimate targets.

I wonder how long these effects last, however, since gaming is usually a home activity. The effect on physiological arousal was at least as strong, and could account for the inreased aggression.

Edited November 12, 2014 by MonDie

[tkadm30]

I agree that the scientific evidences of a correlation between video games and violence are poorly defined. In my opinion, playing video games may decrease violence as the user directs any behavioral aggressivity towards a video game rather than someone else.

[iNow]

In my opinion, playing video games may decrease violence as the user directs any behavioral aggressivity towards a video game rather than someone else.

That's super, but you need to recall that opinions require empirical support before they tend to matter to the rest of us, especially if you're bumping a more than 2 year old thread to share them.

[dimreepr]

I don't think it's violence, in whatever media, that's the problem, I think it's the glamorisation of the concept of revenge.

 

It's not a problem in a relatively peaceful society where justice is seen to be done, but in a situation like we have in the middle east, (which was triggered by 9/11) then the need for vengeance, in a society that see's revenge as a virtue starts a war on their own imagination.

[tkadm30]

I have never observed an aggressive behavior from playing video games. I concluded that the effects of playing video games on aggressivity may be inherently predetermined by genetic factors.

[StringJunky]

I have never observed an aggressive behavior from playing video games. I concluded that the effects of playing video games on aggressivity may be inherently predetermined by genetic factors.

You need sampling cohorts containing hundreds, if not thousands, of subjects to see any meaningful trends. Personal anecdotes will most probably be unrepresentative of the true picture.

Edited January 6, 2017 by StringJunky

[iNow]

I have never observed an aggressive behavior from playing video games. I concluded that the effects of playing video games on aggressivity may be inherently predetermined by genetic factors.

Following your same approach, I saw a black swan once and consequently decided that all swans are black.