Australian Study "Confirms Dangers of Violent Videogames"

[Zer0Saber]

I agree. My rainbow lollipop feeling was reduced after playing MORTAL KOMBAT.

 

[Xannieros]

What "Diminished" my humanity is watching/reading the news.

Games, are just games. I can tell the difference, and it affects me none.

Studies like this don't really work. We have conflicting studies on the same topic.

 

[Hugo Artenis Rune]

ARRRAGH I will KILL THEM ALL

 

[efAston]

He found that people consider video-game depictions of theirselves less human than them in real life? Well done, you've shown that not everyone who plays video games does so in a directly applied psychotic episode.

 

[Skratt]

We've finally correlated all of the data Johnson! Now, let's see if we can determine causation...

 

[Hybridwolf]

For the same reasons I disregard paranormal studies, I find violent video game studies entirely pointless purely because it's simply too biased. Almost every study done with decent results are directly effected by the researcher's personal views making the end result useless as it has personal bias applied. Also, just mortal kombat eh? Nothing else? No wonder you got what you wanted.

 

[Blind Sight]

Well no shit University of Queensland, Walter Camp (the 'Father of American Football') figured that out in the early 20th century. He discussed how football was used as a way for young people to demonize opponents and disregard their humanity.

 

[ijoek]

I wasn't half surprised that something like this came out of UQ. Funny how down the river the Queensland University of Technology is saying the exact opposite.

 

[Nimcha]

But Dr. Brock Bastian of the University of Queensland's School of Psychology says fears about the influence of violent games are well-founded, as his new study has found that people who play these games tend to see their opponents, and even themselves, as "lacking in core human qualities such as warmth, open-mindedness and intelligence."

Apparently he's never used the internet!

Haha, thanks for that one. True and witty, well done.

 

[Dastardly]

I've always thought the USA was a little backward on that one.

Canada too. Excessive violence, whatever, but a single exposed nipple and 300 boycott groups rally with the slogan "Think of the Children". The Hypocrisy always astounds me.

As an American who understands the confusion, I'd like to offer an explanation for this one. In the case of sex versus violence, to me, it's a matter of which one a child is more likely to imitate.

Is a child more likely to recreate a beheading, or a sex act? Considering the beheadings require a lot of effort, cause a big mess, and are notoriously hard to find volunteers for... and sex is enjoyable, legal, and much easier to find a willing partner for? We're more likely to see a net cultural impact from over-exposure to sex than violence. Oddly enough, that seems to be exactly what is happening.

Recap:

Violence:
- harder to imitate
- illegal, chance of harsh punishment
- hard to find willing participants
- messy and unpleasant
- problems resulting from violence are usually dealt with in the open

Sex:
- easier to imitate (naturally)
- legal, or at least not specifically criminalized
- easy to find willing participants
- remarkably pleasant
- problems resulting from sex are usually kept private and not fixed

(Additional issue: Kid imitating violence often results in fewer people. Kid imitating sex usually leads to more people.)

Basically, whether folks agree overall, there are perfectly logical reasons for finding sex to be a bigger problem than violence in the media.

 

[Jennacide]

Yes, let's continue making idiotic conjecture we can't prove over small sample sizes with single criteria! This studies always insult my intelligance. I'm a smart, strong willed woman, that has no problem playing ultraviolent games like Gears of War. But here's the fun part, I have a HUGE aversion to realistic gore. Movie violence bothers me, games don't. This clown would claim it's because I'm desensitized, which is a crock. It's because I know what the word GRAPHICS means. Seeing something like Hostel is far more traumatizing than chainsawing a Locust in half, because I'm fully aware that it was never real to begin with. Whereas events like Hostel may be movie magic, but that sort of shit ACTUALLY GOES ON.

 

[squid5580]

You know these "studies" aren't nearly as bothersome as the articles that are about them. It always reads the same. "Oh the researcher wanted these results and created them". Why can't I just click on one of these ridiculous articles and read "well humans have been violent since they crawled out of the primordial ooze and haven't really gotten better or worse (just figured out easier ways to do it) so why are we doing these studies in the first place?

 

[svenjl]

as soon as i saw Australia i knew it would be a bash agaisnt games, they hate violence down there, though funny enough are ok with sex (or so I been told.)

Nothing to see here, its just as mindless as the violence they (proclaim) is mindless.

You're spot on! As an Aussie I do hate violence AND I'm totally ok with sex (I've even been known to enjoy it from time to time).

 

[Jeremy Meadows]

Of course this comes from Australia. The place were games are already edited or even banned. It's just slock from some idiot in a lab coat.

 

[Lunar Templar]

yeah, that's pretty much what i figured. i' a wait till they do one of these where they don't going in 'expecting' anything like this twat did

 

[Samurai Silhouette]

Violent people are attracted to violent video games. How fucking hard is it to wrap their heads around that concept?

 

[goldendriger]

Violent videogames make you angry? Thats bullshit! If i find the guy who did that im gonna kick his ass! Man im so angry now...im gonna go play Battlefield then maybe murder a hooker.

 

[Something Amyss]

That's the point, isn't it? In just about any kind of competitive activity, it's natural to view your opponent not as a fellow human being, but as an ass to be kicked. I also question how much weight can be given to feelings of "humanity," whatever that may mean, when you're squaring off against an entirely non-human opponent. You're not shooting a human or setting him on fire or body-slamming him through a table or whatever, you're doing it to an enemy who doesn't actually exist. And you're not even doing it, you're just pushing buttons. It seems to me that if there's anything dehumanizing about it, it's that there's nothing at all "human" about it in the first place.

Seriously, I have no qualms mowing down hundreds of video game characters over a lunch break because they're not real. I can't speak for everyone, but this does seem to be more or less the norm in my experience. We don't treat NPCs like humans because they're not. A lot of them look human, but they're still not.

I don't think the attitudes translate to the real world, but that would be an interesting thing to study. Not entirely sure how it would work, but it'd be interesting.

 

[Something Amyss]

Violent people are attracted to violent video games. How fucking hard is it to wrap their heads around that concept?

Unfortunately, very hard. Many people, even a lot of scientists, conflate correlation and causation.

 

[PlowmanMk]

In all fairness, it is the University of Queensland here

Also, just because this study is Australian doesn't mean that we all think like that - hell, I don't know anyone with that mindset.

Nonetheless, this study has been done numerous times before.