Majority of Americans Believe Games Contribute to Violence

[JPArbiter]

a majority of Americans also believe in angels. the Majority is allowed to believe things that been proven to be false. it will not make them right though.

Er, I don't believe you can disprove heaven and angels. But nice try, regardless.

Cute, very cute, but the point of science is to prove that something exists or does not through a foundation of evidence and testing. If there is no evidence to support a hypothesis through testing, then as far as science is concerned that THING does not exist. since we can not obtain a Grigori or Seraphem for testing, Angels are considered not to exist, at least until one can be tested.

Scientific study has proven that there is no causation or correlation between games and violence, people for some reason believe otherwise.

 

[Trishbot]

a majority of Americans also believe in angels. the Majority is allowed to believe things that been proven to be false. it will not make them right though.

Er, I don't believe you can disprove heaven and angels. But nice try, regardless.

Cute, very cute, but the point of science is to prove that something exists or does not through a foundation of evidence and testing. If there is no evidence to support a hypothesis through testing, then as far as science is concerned that THING does not exist. since we can not obtain a Grigori or Seraphem for testing, Angels are considered not to exist, at least until one can be tested.

Scientific study has proven that there is no causation or correlation between games and violence, people for some reason believe otherwise.

That's not what you said, however. You said that angels have been "proven false". That is not the same as proving that something exists, or that it doesn't exist. Rather, there is a lack of evidence pointing towards either the existence of, or lack there-of, of angelic beings. This is largely due to the fact that spirituality, the human soul, and even human morality cannot be proven or disproven. There is no "science" behind the moral stance that life is precious and valuable and thus murder and abuse is "wrong".

The "point" of science is not to prove or disprove anything, but to merely observe. Any good scientist will tell you that a lack of evidence disproves nothing and instead renders the study "inconclusive". By extension, many scientists have found spirituality through the evidence and beauty of the world around them as explained by science, where the theories of random existence and the unlikelihood of life itself don't quite mesh with insanely complex, purposely designed biology of an individual and the ecosystem around them.

Or, to be quite crass, do you believe anything existed before you were born? Can you 100% prove it? Or is there a possibility, however slim, that nothing existed before you were sprung to life and that the entire world around you is only as old as you are, birthed into existence alongside yourself? It's an interesting theory to speculate over...

 

[Smolderin]

So much American hate here....I mean I know we aren't necessarily the most popular country anymore, but come on, give us some credit. The majority of the youth here are extremely intelligent, but if were talking about the older generations, Like those in their 50's and over....then I can definitely understand this study. Most of the older people here are ignorant, stuck in their ways, and dumb as rocks. They would say something like games causes violence. But I am not going to sit here and believe a study that suggests 58% of us (us being people who are actually growing up along with this generation) are complete and total idiots.

 

[Darks63]

These poll are almost always biased, the sample sizes are often to small, the people polled usually aren't stated in the poll results and can only be found through some investigation and any data collected can be manipulated however the people running the poll want to be manipulated.

 

[Edl01]

You know all year I have been going on about how "gaming is getting more accepted, it is not as bad as it used to be, they'll be moving onto a new target soon". And now this.
I don't even want to comment on it.

 

[Tsaba]

The first major practice of any business is location, location, location (where was the poll take).... seriously, I've never been polled, not that I care to be, but, the point I'm trying to make is how does this represent my country when they're interviewing a select few for this poll.... just under 2300 and that somehow represents everyone, that somehow says, "Harris Poll: 58 percent of adults believe in a correlation between video games and violence." I call shenanigans.

This ridiculous witch hunt that the media is on is getting out of hand. If it's not: twitter, Facebook, second life, LeBron James, or President Obama, CNN and damn near everyone else is up in arms against it because it's "evil." GASP! he had a gun and he killed people, OMG! he played Call of Duty and talked about how much he liked it.... seriously... I've seen better high school plays with a thicker plot and better acting. You don't need your hand held to see someone is trying to rally the mob.

Video Games aren't the cause of violence, I could go into how this is a social issue, but, we could be here a while.

 

[AwesomeDave]

I see a lot of Americans get so butt-hurt over quips against their country... here's my question... why so sensitive over man-made lines on a map? Does the country you're from really define you so much? I mean, I'm from Canada, and you don't see me ranting and raving when people call us fur-cap-wearing, plaid-or-denim-dressing, beer-swilling hockey players with ridiculous accents that say "aboot" and "eh" at least 4 times per sentence.

 

[AwesomeDave]

So much American hate here....I mean I know we aren't necessarily the most popular country anymore, but come on, give us some credit. The majority of the youth here are extremely intelligent, but if were talking about the older generations, Like those in their 50's and over....then I can definitely understand this study. Most of the older people here are ignorant, stuck in their ways, and dumb as rocks. They would say something like games causes violence. But I am not going to sit here and believe a study that suggests 58% of us (us being people who are actually growing up along with this generation) are complete and total idiots.

It's due to the fact that your average American doesn't have a world-wide TV show, and your Jersey Shore cast did. Ergo, that's what the world sees of your country.

 

[AwesomeDave]

I understand that they've extrapolated the data to say this, however 2278 out of 3 hundred million (rounded to nearest hundred million) is not really a good test in my eyes. Really, all you've said is that 58% of the 2278 Americans are idiots.

I'd also like to see more supplementary data on the people that were surveyed to give more context to these results. For instance, what was the range of ages of the people they surveyed? What states did they survey in? Highest education level? Political background? Number of kids? Familiarity with technology? I'd like to believe they did more than just survey 1 or 2 cities and call it a day.

It was probably a poll of residents of 25-50 nursing/retirement homes, done just to create a sensationalist article, so that staunch defenders of video games would go to it to defend their hobby. Remember, hit-counters on sites don't care if you are for or against the content on the site, just that someone went there.

 

[siomasm]

Two years ago i remmeber reading a research where over 80% of americasn didnt kenw the continent they were on and over 60% didnt knew their state capital. as well as majority though things like NASA gets 30% of USA budget and whatnot.
where im going with this is:
majority of americans believe games contribute to violence
majority of americans are bat-shit retarded
see the correlation?

I am sure the same people who did that retarded research and read anything into it are probably the same retards who think 2,000 people is a good cross section of a nation over over 300 million.

Thats like saying "well one Lithuanian believes 2,000 people is a good cross section, so most lithuanians are bat-shit retarded!"

Pretty much this ^

Any biased and vague poll can easily be modeled to represent what interested parties want it to, for instance:

*The majority of responses in this thread poked holes in the logic of the poll and subject itself, but used the same train of thought and broken logic to come to the conclusion that "Americans are all stupid!".
(taking a small demographic ignorant on the issue and using it to judge the whole)

*The third party referencing of "Americans" from the majority of these responses indicates a good majority of people making these responses were not American.

*Therefore, these people who followed the same logic that they proclaimed idiocy, from a different nation than America, prove that nationality has nothing to do with stupidity on a global scale.

Ergo my undeniably scientific study has proven that the majority of people around the world are stupid regardless of nation or culture.

 

[michael87cn]

In my personal opinion polls don't really mean anything, and they don't really provide any measure of accuracy.

Every human being is different. Want to break a poll? Gather 10 people, another 10 people, and then another 10 people and poll them. You will see fluctuating variables like 33% and 66% and 11%, any number basically. Why? Every human being is different. Seperating people into a single group and asking them a yes or no (or very restricted) question will never provide you with trustworthy results.

They're a game, or a fun thing to do, nothing more.

 

[Strazdas]

Two years ago i remmeber reading a research where over 80% of americasn didnt kenw the continent they were on and over 60% didnt knew their state capital. as well as majority though things like NASA gets 30% of USA budget and whatnot.
where im going with this is:
majority of americans believe games contribute to violence
majority of americans are bat-shit retarded
see the correlation?

I am sure the same people who did that retarded research and read anything into it are probably the same retards who think 2,000 people is a good cross section of a nation over over 300 million.

Thats like saying "well one Lithuanian believes 2,000 people is a good cross section, so most lithuanians are bat-shit retarded!"

i posted this as a half-joke and you brought my country into it. well played.
anyway, 2000 people are a fair representation if peopel are represented correctly (for example equal amoutns of students, workers, businesmen ect ect). such organizations like Red Cross and World Health Organization consider a sample of 1000 for small country, 2000 for large and 5000 for very large countries to be good amount for gathering statistics. i personally was applaed like you when i found out, but then i looked deeper and everyone does that. it seems that by this logic, pretty much no research done ever amounts to anything simply because not enough respondents. Im not saying that everyone is stupid, merely that statistically, there seems to be a high chance to pick a random person on the street and him end up being stupid. that ind of stuff.

 

[dfphetteplace]

A majority believe in angels too. That is all you really need to know.

 

[Lazy Kitty]

Well, it's not such a long time ago that lots of people thought witchcraft existed.
Or that there was a-
Wait, they still do, better not finish that sentence, before they burn me on a stake.

 

[Jacob Machlis]

Here's what I'm assuming happened: (Stealing Yahtzee's idea) We'll call him Pillock. "Hey!" Says Pillock "We need to scare old people into hating video games again! They'll want to read this because their grandchildren play those things! And hey! Money!" And so he goes and interviews 1000 unbiased people. The majority of them do not think video games contribute to violence. "Well... That can't be right..." Thinks Pillock. "I need to interview more people who agree with me so I can have actual correct 'statistics' so I can have another pool table!" so he proceeds to survey 1400 people and most of them agree with him but he's still below 50%! What to do? Remove the offending people from the survey! Leaving us with 2278 people! "An odd 'total'." Thinks Pillock. "Rather arbitrary for a 'survey' size. but no one will notice that!" And so he releases it to the masses and here we are today!

 

[Jacob Machlis]

Double post. Sorry.