Poll: 61 Percent of Britons Believe Games Cause Violence

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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Poll: 61 Percent of Britons Believe Games Cause Violence


The YouGov poll indicates that "older" Britons are far more likely to believe in a connection between videogames and violent behavior, while younger respondents see it as a "useful outlet" for aggressive urges.

A recent poll conducted by YouGov in cooperation with Dr. Andrew Przybylski of the Oxford Internet Institute indicates that 61 percent of U.K. respondents "with an opinion on the matter" - which is to say, those who did not respond to the question with "neither" or "I don't know" - believe that videogames "can be a cause of real-world violence and aggression." It's a disheartening number, given the complete lack of evidence to support any such connection.

Digging a little deeper, however, it becomes clear that that opinion is far more likely to be held by people aged 60 or more - 79 percent - than by young adults. Looking at it from the opposite end, 73 percent of respondents aged 18-24 agreed that games "can be a useful outlet for frustrations and aggression," while only 49 percent of people aged 60 or older shared the belief.

Females were also far more likely than men to agree that games can cause violent behavior, while those who reported having no experience playing or watching violent games being played were more than five times more likely to believe in a connection than those who are familiar with them.

It's not a terribly surprising gap, ignorance being rather well-known for leading to fear and mistrust, and it's also worth mentioning that aggression and violence aren't the same thing and don't even necessarily share a connection. Regardless (and also unsurprising), the study suggests that the "mixed views of electronic games" will fade with time and their growing ubiquity. "This ambivalence might be temporary as the population at large becomes more familiar with games," it concludes. "It is possible that concerns about games could fade away in much the same way that fears about rock music, comic books, and radio dramas dissolved when these forms of entertainment gained wider acceptance."

Source: YouGov [http://yougov.co.uk/news/2013/09/23/gamers-less-worried-about-violence-video-games/]


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Berny Marcus

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May 20, 2013
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Yeah because we all know Hitler started World War II by playing Wolfenstein. (sarcasm)

Older folks tend not to be as techno savvy as younger folks, so this distrust of technology is no surprise. Hopefully hey'll educate themselves, then listen to some biased preacher, to form a much conclusive answer for themselves.
 

JamesBr

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Berny Marcus said:
Yeah because we all know Hitler started World War II by playing Wolfenstein. (sarcasm)

Older folks tend not to be as techno savvy as younger folks, so this distrust of technology is no surprise. Hopefully hey'll educate themselves, then listen to some biased preacher, to form a much conclusive answer for themselves.
Wow, a Godwin on the first post. Impressive. At least they stated that this "mixed view" is likely to disappear with age.
 

Malbourne

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Sep 4, 2013
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RADIO DRAMAS. How do they get a free pass in this day and age? Everywhere I go, it's nothing but delinquents with their portable phonographs...

It's a near certainty video games will be as widely accepted as, say, books, but to be honest I'd prefer that these archaic opinions die before the people that hold them do.
 

Berny Marcus

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JamesBr said:
Berny Marcus said:
Yeah because we all know Hitler started World War II by playing Wolfenstein. (sarcasm)

Older folks tend not to be as techno savvy as younger folks, so this distrust of technology is no surprise. Hopefully hey'll educate themselves, then listen to some biased preacher, to form a much conclusive answer for themselves.
Wow, a Godwin on the first post. Impressive. At least they stated that this "mixed view" is likely to disappear with age.

Well I wanted to make a comparison to my post, and Hitler was just there so lol.

Eh I hope this scape goating and mixed view die off over time.
 

MCerberus

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Jun 26, 2013
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Can we all agree, fifty years from now to look back at what's going on here and not complain about kids and their holophonic mind links?
 

Britisheagle

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Probably the same assholes who don't abide by the rating system of games..

I had a customer today in work purchase GTA for a 5 year old. FIVE. I am sorry, no matter what side of the fence you sit, that is messed up.
 

Klagermeister

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Jun 13, 2008
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Oh, how quaint. If it were America, people would be all over bashing the country.

Still, it doesn't surprise me that people are misinformed, especially the alarmist elderly.
 

teqrevisited

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I've seen that poll in effect, too, and I mentally facepalmed so damn hard.

This last saturday I was at work having a conversation with the manager and a part time volunteer who brought up the recent release of GTA 5 and then went on a brief (thankfully) tangent on how her son gets annoyed at being interrupted or whatever whilst gaming (Wonder what happens when he jumps up and down in front of whatever tv show she likes to watch?) and how her daughter, who only played a few flash games here & there on her PC was more reasonable.

I'll probably convince her over time that violence and games have no correlation whatsoever. Everyone there that I've worked with before knows what I'm like about games and how I've not once beaten any of them unconscious for looking at me the wrong way.

I think the problem is that the people who answered the poll think, if even for that brief moment when they answered it, that every player of a violent game is just looking for something destructive or vicious to do 24 hours of the day, as if no one in the world has the ability to act in different ways. Some of the most dangerous people in the world have been as calm or nice as the next man.
 

mrpollio

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"I'm against things I don't do!" - Everyone
"Everything that I didn't have growing up ruins lives!" - Old people
"I don't think any of you know what 'cause' actually means." -Scientist
 

DEAD34345

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That's a weirdly worded question, and I'd actually agree with both of those statements. Of course video games can be a cause of violence, I mean that's provably true. People have been mugged over video games, and people have fought over loaves of bread. It means nothing.

Even assuming it means only the actual content of a game directly causing aggression, that's still almost certainly true. People can become angry at a game in the same way people can be angered by certain scenes in movies or books. I'd be very surprised if this sort of anger had never once in history led to physical violence on someone else.
 

bliebblob

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Sep 9, 2009
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In related news, 61% of bretons answered 'yes' when asked if magic users caused the oblivion crisis.
 

Johnson McGee

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Nov 16, 2009
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This survey isn't worded very well.

In order to answer no to the question of whether video games "...can be a cause of real-world violence and aggression" you have to believe that video games can never be a contributing factor of any sort to any violence or aggression, even in those predisposed to violence. Whereas changing the wording to whether video games "...are a cause of real-world violence and aggression" would likely have far fewer respondents for 'yes' since it's a more strongly worded statement.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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Sep 8, 2011
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So at least 61% of Britons are irrational and illogical and have no idea what the words correlation and causation mean. It's sad.
 

The Wykydtron

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Sep 23, 2010
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Esh, after the title I was ready to type something witty about how you Yanks have to stop taking a poll from The Sun seriously and posting it as news. Oh but then it comes from a decent enough source... There does my digs.

Ah well, just old people being old and the question itself is too vague and open ended for a simple yes/no, it's not really going to go anywhere. Problem solved gg can I go back to shooting people in the face now?
 

Infernal Lawyer

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Jan 28, 2013
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Britisheagle said:
Probably the same assholes who don't abide by the rating system of games..

I had a customer today in work purchase GTA for a 5 year old. FIVE. I am sorry, no matter what side of the fence you sit, that is messed up.
This. As long as video games are held in the public view as something designed only for kids (and man-kids), yet simultaneously as horrible things that will drive you to murderous acts, this ignorance will only continue.
 

Chimpzy_v1legacy

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Jun 21, 2009
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In other news, 61% of Britons are naive, gullible sops who will believe everything they're told.
 

MarsProbe

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Dec 13, 2008
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Out of the 15 people they polled for this, I wonder how many actually had "an opinion on the matter" (these sort of surveys always garner their results from a comparatively small pool of people). It's like those ads you see for products (usually health/grooming products) that say 9/10 of all recommend this product, out of a whopping 125 people surveyed. But yeh, whatever. The people that hold this sort of view are a dying breed anyway, it's not like well have to put with this sort thing forever.