Poll: Do Video Games cause violent behavior?
- Thread starter Tenkage
- Start date
Of course! When I am done playing my favorite game I have an overwhelming urge to throw banana peels out of my car, throw turtle shells at other drivers, and put mushrooms in my engine to make my car go faster(or eat them. I haven't figured out how the mushrooms are suppose to work)!
If you can't tell, that is totally satirical. Video games only cause violent outbreaks in people who have preexisting conditions.
If you can't tell, that is totally satirical. Video games only cause violent outbreaks in people who have preexisting conditions.
If they're caught in a metaphorical landslide, there might be no escape from reality. They need to open their eyes, look up to the sky and see that there are no pixels there. Some poor boy is easy come, easy go when it comes to grasping existence. It's a common problem, with lapsing-into-fantasy rates a little high, sometimes a little low. Any way the wind blows, it wouldn't matter to them. WoW has no wind, poor souls.The Austin said:
Yes. That was Bohemian Rhapsody.
Violent videogames don't make you violent. Parents and society raise you to avoid violent impulses. If you somehow feel compelled to violent actions then there needs to be more afoot than simply having seen violence on a TV screen. Take Africa as an example. It does not have many videogames, yet people there tend to be a bit on the violent side (due to hunger, social inequality, cultural and religious tension).
Videogames are often used as a way to escape an unpleasant reality (at least they were in my case) and if your kid spends all his/her time in their room playing videogames and tries to avoid you at every turn, there might be more to it than simply the videogame being more fun.
Videogames are often used as a way to escape an unpleasant reality (at least they were in my case) and if your kid spends all his/her time in their room playing videogames and tries to avoid you at every turn, there might be more to it than simply the videogame being more fun.
Sure they do. Kids see these actions in games, movies, TV, and they act out based on them. This isn't anything new, nor is it an unreasonable assumption.
Possibly one of the most easiest debates to find countless unbiased studies on and yet you turn to a gaming forum?
Meh, they probably do in some instances (though the hype about it is extremely over-exaggerated).
But I said 'don't care' because honestly, I really don't.
No matter how many video games I play I will never kill or hurt someone because of them, (unless they delete my pokemon save) and since I know this, and enjoy many violent games, I really couldn't give a rats.
But I said 'don't care' because honestly, I really don't.
No matter how many video games I play I will never kill or hurt someone because of them, (unless they delete my pokemon save) and since I know this, and enjoy many violent games, I really couldn't give a rats.
There have been studies which have shown that violence in videogames can amplify an already existing tendency (no source at my hands sorry) but that holds true for almost anything you encounter in life.
My two cents is that i don't get the appeal of violent games (first person war simulators and above; im fine with rts's since violence is no primary aspect there) anyway. Maybe some Escapist may explain it to me.
My two cents is that i don't get the appeal of violent games (first person war simulators and above; im fine with rts's since violence is no primary aspect there) anyway. Maybe some Escapist may explain it to me.
I did a paper on this a couple of years ago, so let me help you with your thesis statement:
Videogames do not cause violence, however subjects have demonstrated a higher level of aggression than those whom were not playing the videogame or a less violent one. This increase in aggresion is a gradual mark and is much less than the increase caused by contact sports(e.g. Football, wrestling, boxing).
That's a fairly good place to start.
As a side note, I remember a study done a few years ago that was fairly good, it was about the correlation to aggression caused by videogames with effect to reward and punishment. It found that when the player was punished or received no benefit from harming innocent bystanders, the aggression levels were nearly the same as opposed to that of the players whom were awarded for it.
Edit: Just remembered this, be sure to note the different definition of aggression and violence as outlined by the APA, American Psychological Association. This is fairly important for your reader to understand the difference and avoid drawing the wrong conclusion.
*cough*Fox News*cough*
Edit part 2: http://search.apa.org/search?query=video%20games
Look there for research.
Videogames do not cause violence, however subjects have demonstrated a higher level of aggression than those whom were not playing the videogame or a less violent one. This increase in aggresion is a gradual mark and is much less than the increase caused by contact sports(e.g. Football, wrestling, boxing).
That's a fairly good place to start.
As a side note, I remember a study done a few years ago that was fairly good, it was about the correlation to aggression caused by videogames with effect to reward and punishment. It found that when the player was punished or received no benefit from harming innocent bystanders, the aggression levels were nearly the same as opposed to that of the players whom were awarded for it.
Edit: Just remembered this, be sure to note the different definition of aggression and violence as outlined by the APA, American Psychological Association. This is fairly important for your reader to understand the difference and avoid drawing the wrong conclusion.
*cough*Fox News*cough*
Edit part 2: http://search.apa.org/search?query=video%20games
Look there for research.
That doesn't mean you're violent you've just gained an interest in firearms. Wanting to know how to use them and wanting to use them on people are two very different things.koeniginator said:
OT: I would say no for the same reasons most people have already said. Anyone who would commit violent acts because of a video game probably already has a tendency towards violent behavior and/or are unbalanced enough that they can't tell reality from fantasy.
What you would be looking for here is a direct correlation between the amount of violent video game content an individual has absorbed and a willingness, or lack of inhibition, to INITIATE violent behavior with others. In other words, prove conclusively, with no attributable X-factors, that playing a game with violent content made this person get violent. Not more likely to be violent (that's not a direct correlation), GET VIOLENT.
Put simply, you won't find one. I have NEVER, since I was aware of what a scientifically accurate study was, heard of one that demonstrated this.
You could make an argument in favor of desensitization, wherein violent or disturbing content lessens the averse reaction of a player to that content in future exposures, and you would be right; Dead Space isn't as scary the second time around (if it was scary at all for you, that is...modern Survival Horrors are like that). You could also make an argument in favor of the likelihood of violence, since there is an obvious psychological lack of inhibition, and therefore reduced chance of avoidance, against actions whose consequences the subject has been desensetized to. But that's been done, and it doesn't prove anything concrete.
For those of you who can't or don't want to decode that word pasta, there are studies out there that indicate that violent game content makes players less sensitive (read: less likely to be disturbed by) to violence. This is provable. It applies to ALL forms of media. There are NOT, however, studies that indicate that violent game content makes players violent themselves. The overwhelming majority of misunderstandings regarding this debate involve confusing those two.
If I were writing this report, I would dedicate a large portion of the paper to dealing with that problem. Identify both phenomena and draw a clear distinction. Ask me to clarify if you wish.
EDIT: Almost forgot, Moviebob covered this too. Link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoht0Xy5nQs
Put simply, you won't find one. I have NEVER, since I was aware of what a scientifically accurate study was, heard of one that demonstrated this.
You could make an argument in favor of desensitization, wherein violent or disturbing content lessens the averse reaction of a player to that content in future exposures, and you would be right; Dead Space isn't as scary the second time around (if it was scary at all for you, that is...modern Survival Horrors are like that). You could also make an argument in favor of the likelihood of violence, since there is an obvious psychological lack of inhibition, and therefore reduced chance of avoidance, against actions whose consequences the subject has been desensetized to. But that's been done, and it doesn't prove anything concrete.
For those of you who can't or don't want to decode that word pasta, there are studies out there that indicate that violent game content makes players less sensitive (read: less likely to be disturbed by) to violence. This is provable. It applies to ALL forms of media. There are NOT, however, studies that indicate that violent game content makes players violent themselves. The overwhelming majority of misunderstandings regarding this debate involve confusing those two.
If I were writing this report, I would dedicate a large portion of the paper to dealing with that problem. Identify both phenomena and draw a clear distinction. Ask me to clarify if you wish.
EDIT: Almost forgot, Moviebob covered this too. Link!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoht0Xy5nQs
Its like playing chess except more fun. You can get very, very frustrated but the chess game itself didn't make you spaz out and knock down all the pieces with your fist. No, that was your lack of self control.
I put a "maybe".
From what I've seen, if someone isn't predisposed to being violent, they're not going to be violent after playing a game.
However it can act as a trigger to other people ¬¬. So it's not directly the game imo, but prolly is a gateway for a small minority of folks.
From what I've seen, if someone isn't predisposed to being violent, they're not going to be violent after playing a game.
However it can act as a trigger to other people ¬¬. So it's not directly the game imo, but prolly is a gateway for a small minority of folks.
I use that example myself. The crusades were before video games, and I'm pretty sure Hitler didn't launch his attack and Jews because he lost against them in Halo. Still everyone's too stupid to take that example for a good one. When I've used it they've told me that the culture is changing and that what caused violence before might not be the cause today.Terminalchaos said:
Movies used to be the cause, now it's video games.
Asking it at a house wife set (let' just say old house wives got their own forum for once) you would most likely get the opposite answer. There is one major difference here though, we know what we're talking about from experience. We don't say what we say because we want to accomplish something, we have played violent video games, see that it doesn't affect us, know plenty of others that aren't. This site actually gives a better study by the terms needed in statistics than those in the news that say violent video games cause violence. On this thread alone we've got 68 users saying that it does not cause violence, 14 undecided or uncaring. 68 persons compared to how many deaths caused by killers that claim they're like that because they've played video games? By the standards required for a real survey what we will find on this site would be lacking and you're right, biased. What you hear in the news is also biased because they want to support a case. Why are video games in hot water? Politics! Politicians get votes by saying they're going to do something with street violence and preventing kids from playing violent games.Grilled Cheesus said:
Now ask yourself the next school shooting or other pointless hold up ending with a few dead people. What kind of weapon did he/she use? How/where did he/she get it? Can that be used for hunting?
Still I wont say that gun control is the reason either. If we make it close to impossible to get guns we will find other ways to kill. If we ban video games there will be another thing driving us to kill. Video games give us ideas, but putting an idea about killing people into action makes it more than what you could achieve from playing video games.
Movies and music has been blamed before, don't be one of those guys who forget that and hear that games are the cause and jump to that. There's actually a survey showing that those who play violent video games get relaxed because the lose tension from it.