Psychology Study Blames Games for Aggressive Behavior

[Phyroxis]

Double-post as a result of some strange first-post-not-showing-up-problem. Delete this.

 

[I.N.producer]

I never said Astronomy was invalid..? Nor that correlation was unacceptable.

You're repeating the line that correlation =/= causation. That doesn't mean it still can't be true. Astronomy is wholly based off correlation, so if you go "hurr correlation not causation" then you're discounting an entire science.

Astronomy is based on correlation because everything is absurdly far away. You can't conduct proper experiments, so you make observations, draw conclusions, and revise these conclusions as new information is revealed by observation.

Basing psychology only on correlation would make no sense because it is testable. That example is a little out of context.

 

[legendp]

I think someone who gets smashed (drunk) at the pub will do a lot more damage than someone who like's to sit at home playing violent video games. I think it is down to the person. I don't quench at blood but I am not a fan of it either however I have played a lot of violent video games and consider myself a pacifism (meaning I will only resort to violence as a last resort). a kid who sits at home playing video games is probaly more afraid to hit someone than someone who is out every night.

 

[Cyberjester]

"At least that's how associate professor Bruce Bartholow from the University of Missouri sounds when he describes his experiment that attempts to prove the correlation between violent games and aggression"


Duuuuude. Have you ever heard of libel? Insulting someone because you disagree with them is NOT covered under freedom of speech. Regardless of what you may have heard.

I would actually agree with the results. Repeated exposure to something will get you used to it, whether it be CP, violence, P in general, mad dentists, whatever. I'd argue that games are not the only influence, but come on.

Arden: The World of Shakespeare was ditched because "it would be too boring for people to play".

Nobody dies horribly so it's boring? It's like most insults leveled at the Wii. "Well I'd like to see it play CoD with decent frame rates". Can't shoot something, don't want anything to do with it. But again, not just games. TV, movies, music, books. We seem to get off on violence, so of course violence is what we are served. Over, and over, and over, and over again.

And yes, even a short session of blowing people up will cause more aggressive action. It's like, put a person in a polite and formal setting and they'll behave themselves. A few minutes in CoD and it's "GET OUT OF THE FUCKING WAY!! Can you believe that? Just walks in front of me while I'm shooting the FUCKWIT.".

Actual conversation. ^ ^

Yes the results are right, the conclusion.. Actually is correct. Participation in violence will make one more disposed to violence. IMO they should have gone a step further and said something along the lines of "Violence in media such as film and music will desensitize people to violence and video games are such a pervasive form of media that the impact can be higher than a movie. However both are bad, it is simply the level of attention given to the media and time spent on it which determines the full impact regardless of subject.".

Stopping at "Violence breeds violence" (I mean, who knew?) is however what they were looking at, not social ills as a result of various media.

 

[Cyberjester]

Also, I'd like to know how many people they had in their study, you only see one.

lolwut. Did you even click on the link? You are not entitled to post unless you've read the link.

First sentence of the third paragraph, so just after the introduction.

During the study, 70 young adult participants were randomly assigned to play either a nonviolent or a violent video game for 25 minutes.

 

[Meric]

Oh, I wasn't having anything directed at the study. I was just feeling like making fun of the bullshit social sciences. Ie, social psychology, which is closely linked to Sociology.

relating it to Marxism in your first post showed how little you know about it.

 

[shadow741]

There's too much entertainment and media associated with murder or violent behavior for video games to be the main cause of it. Hell, in Roman days they watched unarmed men fight lions for entertainment. Also, people shouldn't take the games so seriously.

 

[CosmicCommander]

Oh, I wasn't having anything directed at the study. I was just feeling like making fun of the bullshit social sciences. Ie, social psychology, which is closely linked to Sociology.

relating it to Marxism in your first post showed how little you know about it.

Not really. Social Psychology and Sociology are fundamentally left-leaning fields. I was just bringing up Marx as he is usually seen as quintessential leftist.

And note I never related it to Marxism. I related it to Marx. The man and the ideology. Just about every bloody Sociology thesis in the history of man has quoted or rehashed something Marx said.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

Also, I'd like to know how many people they had in their study, you only see one.

lolwut. Did you even click on the link? You are not entitled to post unless you've read the link.

First sentence of the third paragraph, so just after the introduction.

During the study, 70 young adult participants were randomly assigned to play either a nonviolent or a violent video game for 25 minutes.

I was being lolz, obviously. Why the fuck would they only have 1 person in their study? Besides compared to the 307,006,550 (july 2009, US census) people in the U.S. 70 people is one of the crappiest subject sizes ever, not to mention they only picked young adults. -> And thats my point: this "study" should've been shot down at the gate, it fails in almost everyway statistically possible.

 

[nbamaniac]

Meh.. Statisticians are the greatest trolls ever. Dont feed em

 

[Janktrio]

There was already a cracked article about this. Playing violent video games does make a person more aggressive in the short-term but playing video games that revolve around doing something good makes people nicer in the short-term as well. It works both ways.

 

[NightHawk21]

IS this a new study, cause I swear to god this has been done before, with similar results. People who played violent videogames were more desensitized to violent images. However, I believe it was also shown that they showed lower aggression in everyday situations.

 

[Phyroxis]

Correlation =|= causation. That is a fact.

That doesn't mean anything though. It's still valid as evidence in science

And you continue to disregard what I say. This is over.

 

[Erana]

Then what does butchering an animal for soup do to me? Its dead and headless, but I'm still dismembering it.

But society would say, "Oh, what a good little cook. You'd make a good mother some day."

 

[I.N.producer]

Basing psychology only on correlation would make no sense because it doesn't make sense to me so therefore it isn't true.

That's what I saw when I read your post.

You could actually read my post and argue instead of misquoting me and dismissing my point, that's just a bit arrogant.

Here's what I actually said:

Astronomy is based on correlation because everything is absurdly far away. You can't conduct proper experiments, so you make observations, draw conclusions, and revise these conclusions as new information is revealed by observation.

Basing psychology only on correlation would make no sense because it is testable. That example is a little out of context.

One problem with basing psychology only on correlation is that there are so many correlations that results can be blamed on the wrong coincidence. If someone had grown up in a bad neighborhood, had abusive parents, had siblings involved in gang activity, played violent video games, and killed someone, it's not right to blame the murder only on video games.

If correlations are being made, the whole picture needs to be looked at. These studies do not include every aspect of the participants' lives and upbringings, and therefore, looking only at correlations is unwieldy at best.

That is why I said basing psychology only on correlation would make no sense, not the "my opinion is fact" reason you assumed.

 

[AdamRBi]

Do any of these modern day Psychology Studies go back and take a look at Comic Books or Music to see if the claims from the 50's still hold up? Or are the modern threats more concerning because they didn't grow up with it?

I'm still amused by the claim that "Desensitized to Violence" = "Agressive Behavior." As if you can't have one without the other.

So, wait, if he claims that Video Games aren't the only cause (I did not take time to watch the video I'm going my mentions from other posts) then has he done studies on other causes? Have those been published and just not bought to our attention because it's not video game related?

 

[Weaver]

My problem with the study is implication's he's drawing where he shouldn't.
The gamers were desensitized to violent imagery they were not desensitized to violence itself. There is a world of difference.