Psychology Study Blames Games for Aggressive Behavior

[sora91111]

Yes this has been highly debated on both sides, some say it's reduces stress others say it builds agression. I can't really use myself as an example because I do play violent games and I'm not agressive in my social life, but I am agressive because I play rugby. So... yea there's that.

 

[callmegreen]

OH JOY......................... it's THIS again /sarcasm/

 

[Dastardly]

First off, the research seems to ignore one principle rule:
Correlation does not imply causation.

They've discovered a correlation, but I don't see any plausible causation. Why would being desensitized to violence make one more prone to violent or aggressive behaviour? At most they have less of an aversion to it, but that does not mean someone will be more aggressive.

What probably IS the cause of increased aggression is the nature of the games being played. Not because they're violent, but because they're competitive online games (Call of Duty definitely, Killzone... I think so; I don't play either, but FPS games are known for being both violent and very competitive when it comes to online play). Increased competitiveness would almost certainly increase one's aggression as well, because winning games (video games or sports) tends to favour those who are constantly pushing forward; patience is very seldom the reason one wins a match. Throw in online-gamings well-known lack of restraint, maturity, and sportsmanship, and you have a hyper-competitive environment where aggressive combat with a strong focus on killing eachother (particularly for something like an FPS) runs rampant.

The researchers should come up with a good explanation for their correlation, not one which overlooks many key details.

Complete agreement on the latter portion, especially.

As I said in my post above, I'd like them to include more information about what types of "non-violent" game were used. I'd also like to see them run similar comparisons with competitive and non-competitive non-violent games, and see if any significant results pop up.

The idea that "blasting louder sounds" necessarily means someone is "more aggressive" is a potential problem, too. It could just be that a person playing a violent game is in a somewhat more "excited" state, making them prone to react more strongly to requests or challenges (like, say, telling them to attack with sound). It could also be that the competitive nature of these games is what leads to that behavioral change, not the violent nature itself*.

*Though I would allow that violence, particularly when it includes a humanoid surrogate meant to be "us," has a more primal connection to our basic competitive drive. But so does football, so what's new?

 

[kasperbbs]

So this proves that people won't care about yet another 'violent' image after playing mortal kombat for 25 minutes, WOW! This video made me wanna punch someone more than playing games ever will.

 

[ryo02]

"known" for years? hmm no ... no they didnt

 

[Electrogecko]

I feel like there's no argument when it comes to this. It's obvious that video games have an effect on a person's aggression levels. The question is, does it increase or decrease them, and to this, I believe the logical answer is the former.

Of course, the same could be made of millions of components of everyday life- Like if you sit on an uncomfortable chair at the office.

 

[Baron_Rouge]

The first bit was interesting, but there are problems with the second part, when he says that people who already play a lot of violent video games are less sensitive to violent imagery. That's a correlational study, and as such you can't make causal conclusions based on it, as the confounds haven't been eliminated. Any psychologist should know that. I know that and I'm only a psychology student.

People who already see a lot of violence, perhaps from TV shows and such, might be more desensitized to it and subsequently more predisposed to buy a violent video game. All that second part suggests is that there is a correlation between violent video games and becoming desensitized to violence, not that there's a causal link.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I'm amazed by how the greatest minds in science and philosophy still try to establish what "reality" is, while you believe a mecanism (your brain is not a person, therefore it is not rational; nor is your subconscious) simply "worked it out".

Quite simply, nature trumps science because it's been around for longer.

Science actually has worked it out. I'd suggest looking up the "uncanny valley" when you've finished being condescending.

You might also want to look up "mechanism", "rational" and the difference between a mind and a brain.

 

[Zeekar]

This experiment has been done time and time again. It doesn't speak much to his credit to not know this. It does not any more than any experiment before it prove a cause and effect link between video game violence and real violence. You can't prove it, beyond exposing people to actual violence -- putting an actual gun in their hands with no rules to see whether gamers or non-gamers would fare better.

Keep trying, I'll keep laughing.

 

[The Stonker]

So are you telling me that books,movies,theater or even cowboy games (childrens games) can't do the same?

I'm a renonwed bacon expert and I will tell you that bacon is fatty! But so is any other meat.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

... and tomorrow we'll get a story that proves that there is no link whatsoever... and then by the weekend we'll have another one that proves it again.

We see this all the time and it gets really old. Why is this such a big deal to people anyway? Oh yeah, that's right, because the same people who tried to ban comic books and protest Marilyn Manson concerts want strict regulations on video games because they're something they don't understand. It's silly that people are still this worried about something as insignificant as video games. Seriously... they have ratings on them. Isn't that enough?

 

[HarmanSmith]

I think the scientists should be more concerned with sports increasing aggression. Hell, in football you're encouraged to be violent towards the other team, but you don't see parents up in arms over that. It's a double-standard.

 

[Jamous]

Aggression is most definitely not the same thing as violence. I can definitely agree with the aggressive thing, I get pissed off if I can't get passed a certain point in a game, but I'm not that violent a person. I also have a good hold of myself; if I didn't my aggression -would- lead to violence. Yet it does not.

 

[Timedraven 117]

Why is it so hard for you (common gamers) to believe that seeing violent imagery in motion affects you senisitivity towards violence? Even more if you're actively causing it ("playing")...
Be rational. How could your subconscious possibly know the difference between real-life violence from virtual violence? Is it really that hard to admit? I also play violent videogames, and it doesn't bother me.

if you know its virtual then your subconscious knows as well

OT:i agree that it "desenities" a bit but there is also a big diffrence between video game violence and real life violence a big ones being the smell, sights, sound and every thing else a video game cant deliver in the right magnitude if at all

 

[CheckD3]

I agree and wouldn't call it desensitized, but used to something. When you do something, such as eat McDonalds everyday, the taste gets worse and worse. What's the saying about the best things in life are taken in small bites?

A better test would have had people play 3 games, either in a different order, different amount of time, or one group omitted a more violence based game for either a game they'd been playing or a less violent game. It sounds like he designed his experiments around the results to get what he wanted, which I call shame on

 

[Kahunaburger]

Pretty much any competitive activity makes you more violent in the short term. Sports games, in fact, tend to enhance aggression more than violent games.

The real question is whether anyone has demonstrated that desensitization works on any time frame other than the extreme short-term.

 

[Sennz0r]

First off, blasting more sound at someone is hardly an accurate measure of aggression and probably speaks more to the sound design of the games played.

There was a study a while back that tried to determine whether violent television would cause violence. In this experiment they let subjects administer shocks to people, and the intensity of the shock given was to be the measurement for violent behaviour after said subject had watched either a violent or non-violent television program.

This experiment is very similar with the addition of measurement of brain activity. The only reason they won't shock people this time is because it's considered unethical. The study of psychology took a while to realise you can't just shock people for the sake of science. I bet GlaDOS would disagree, but hey.

The experiment isn't flawed in and of itself. administering loud noises to other people is like exposing them to pain, only less so than shocks. Now if they would've gauged the volume of some song or other sound that the subject would set after playing the game, that would surprise me.

That being said it's been well known that violent imagery makes people violent. It's also been known this effect does not last long after a person has stopped playing.
It's also been known that if you see something all the time, like gore, violent behaviour or anything else violence-related you will get used to that imagery. It's what desensitisation means. What it doesn't mean, however, is that you will also get desensitised to those same images out of their original context. I can look at people getting maimed, blown apart and tortured in video games all day long without flinching, even laugh at some times. But when I watch one of those tv programs that shows a real life surgery going on sopmetimes I get very uncomfortable.

So no, it's not a bad study. It's what people infer from the study that could be bad.

 

[TitanAtlas]

Playing Little Big Planet made me a serial killer... i just like too see people explode out from nowhere and pop when you throw them into fire pits...

I loled at this study... xD

 

[silent-treatment]

The conclusion could also be drawn that video games condition people to be better at goal based situations. If you want to win a game that includes blasting loud sounds at other people, you blast louder sounds at other people. The first part of the study includes a part of science that I have no personal knowledge of (neuroscience) so I cannot comment on that, but the second part is inherently flawed and is set up in a way to purposely prove the persons own hypothesis. Shit I wish people would stop doing this kind of stuff.

Edit:

Playing Little Big Planet made me a serial killer... i just like too see people explode out from nowhere and pop when you throw them into fire pits...

I loled at this study... xD

lol I'm pretty sure LBP is one of those "non-violent games" times they were using for the control. How great would it have been if that group would have been more violent .

 

[zerobudgetgamer]

This is not new; it's only unusual because of the parameters by which this idiot-claiming-professor is asserting that video games cause aggression.

I have seen studies that show the exact same thing that this study showed, that when you put a kid in front of violent video games, the brainwaves that measure aggression rise, and when you keep said kid in front of said games for an extended period of time, those aggression levels become permanently higher, but only by a small degree. I have also seen evidence that shows a steady decline in various forms of crime and violence over the years, and the University of Texas actually did a study a couple years ago linking a drop in crime with the rise in (violent) gaming.

I mean, dear god, how many of these studies are we going to waste money on? It seems every month or so there's another "study" going around trying to prove that video games are evil, while it's barely once a year or longer before we actually get an "intelligent" study, or more aptly a study that actually lists out benefits of video games.