Swedish Study Says Videogames Do Not Cause Aggression

[Rule Britannia]

I love sweden now ;D

 

[henrius]

Does anyone know exactly who the "Swedish Media Council" is? Are they a government run organization? Are they in the private sector? Are they reliable?

I'm currently writing a paper and this information could be really helpful, though that all depends on whether the Swedish Media Council is trustworthy.

 

[ckam]

Too bad no one will listen to this.

 

[ckam]

This makes the most sense, if any of the other "studies" that said violent video games cause violence were true, the world would be in anarchy by now

Also, that's chaos. Not anarchy.

 

[Something Amyss]

Does it ever occur to these researchers that the corralation is the other way around? That maybe naturally aggressive people enjoy playing games where you get to be aggressive? Gee that sounds unlikely.

It gets brought up frequently in honest studies.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Yay Science!!! None this faux science crap where they try to tell me videogames cause me to become violent now where is the part where it gives me super powers? In all seriousness this is something we mostly already know and unfortunately will be mostly ignored.

 

[MrTub]

Does anyone know exactly who the "Swedish Media Council" is? Are they a government run organization? Are they in the private sector? Are they reliable?

I'm currently writing a paper and this information could be really helpful, though that all depends on whether the Swedish Media Council is trustworthy.

It's a government run organization. I hope they are reliable, but honestly I do not know

 

[henrius]

Thanks, I'm currently reading up on their website though it's a bit hard to determine information as Google Translate isn't perfect.

Otherwise this is a very interesting study, seeing that the mission of the Swedish Media Council is to "strengthen children and young people aware media users and protect them from harmful media influences." their lack of a bias is quite comforting, though I haven't read the full report myself.

I think there's no need for government regulation of selling video games (aside from obvious first amendment infringement), though the industry could help raise further awareness of the ESRB, at least in the states.

The Swedish Media Council website can be found here:
http://www.statensmedierad.se/Om-Statens-medierad/

 

[Torrasque]

Thank you Sweden. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some "TOLD YA SO"s to hand out.

 

[sabercrusader]

Well, I remember reading a while back about a study that says games do cause aggression, but in the same way that literally any competition does, like football or basketball. It short too, and isn't harmful. I'm more inclined to agree with that study than any other, but this one does bring up that interesting point that most other studies don't, what if it's cause by an outside factor and they just use games to escape it.

 

[Joey245]

You mean, kids who play violent videogames might ALREADY have aggressive tendencies due to shitty parenting?

"You know how old people always write letters to Dear Abby, complaining that their kids never write, call or visit? Those letters really crack me up."

That's exactly what I've been telling everyone who believes that games are to blame for a while now. Only reason I'm replying is because I caught the Calvin and Hobbes reference.

Seriously, that comic was awesome. +10,000 internet points to you.

OT: If someone truly believes that, after all these studies, all these debates, and all these years that video games truly do cause violence, then they are forever lost. Because with people like this, emotional experiences and feelings will trump logic and reason every. Single. Time.

But as long as at least one person has changed their mind based on this study, then the Swedish have done their job well.

 

[Realitycrash]

Arguing that violent video games lead to real-world violence uses the same logic as arguing that elevated ice cream sales lead to shark attacks.

Wow, you really have no idea how an analogy works, do you?
That's..A really, really poor comparison. Several mediums, when exposed to it, mentally alter your behavior in some subtle way. Point is that it isn't enough to go from violence in videogames = violence in real life, but that doesn't mean that violence in videogames = no change at all. We have age-ratings for a reason, you know.
For your own good, don't make such a logic-leap again, especially not with a flawed comparison like that. You'll probably get pounced on the internet by far ruder people than me (and I have no intent of being rude) in an instance if made at the wrong time, in the wrong place.
Cheers.

 

[BrotherRool]

You haven't understood the meaning properly!!!!

They have said there is clear evidence that people who play videogames are more violent. What they are saying is there's no evidence that it's just that violent people are the sort of people who play videogames and non-violent people have other hobbies.

Thanks for explanation, but naaaaaaaaaaaah, i'm sure i understood it like i was meant to.

"Not causal" means one does not cause another. So, perhaps violent people tend to play more aggressive games. Perhaps thanks to this activity they are 25% less violent. Perhaps the opposite. However there's no evidence that playing aggressive games change people into bloodthirsty monsters and that's the bottom line i guess.[/quote]

Ahh okay the misunderstanding is easy.

The study did not say 'not causal' that;s what the incorrect title suggests. The study said 'no evidence of causal' which sounds like it's the same but it's not at all. I don't know if you do much maths? If you do think of the difference between if and iff (if and only if).

So lets imagine we have a world with all the possibilities being equally likely.
Games reduce violence.
Peaceful people are more likely to play games.
There is no correlation between violence and games.
Violent people are more likely to play games.
Games cause violence.

The big mistake and the one that people have been making is that they've said 'there's a correlation between games and violence' so therefore games make people violent.

Whereas this study suggests, actually you can only rule out the first three options, and that leaves Violent people are more likely to play games and Games cause violence.

The reason I feel that your post isn't quite correct is that you are suggesting that there isn't any evidence/ it isn't likely that games cause violence. At least you've been dismissive of the people who propone the idea that games cause violence.


But you can see from above that basically, people who suggest games cause violence are 50% likely to be right and much more correct in their statement than people who suggest any of the first three, all of which are opinions held by lots of gamers. (Well actually I guess there would be some chance of either of the first two being correct if combined with the fact that violent people are a lot lot more likely to play games but in all honesty that implication is just as distasteful to mean as games causing violence if being attracted to a game is very much likely because you're a violent person)

So I think the videogames cause violence people are still on much surer ground than the people who suggest there is no correlation, and at the very least they're on equal footing with you (I presume) who suggest violent people are more attracted to games than peaceful people.

I just feel fairytale is a bit strong considering the weight of the evidence is still that there is some sort of correlation.

I hope I haven't been too preachy, as I've said before it's mainly because this article was written to make it sound like the idea that games cause violence has been disproved when there hasn't been a scrap of evidence or meaning in the study to really suggest that.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Repeat after me: Correlation, not Causation.

Up yours Australian Shrinks.

This.

I'm proud of my Swedish neighbors right now.

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

So, does this imply that killing kids in game doesn't affect the urge to kill kids in real life?
Really? You're sure about that? I'm pretty sure about that but what about you? And you? And you over there who blantaly posted some insulting and obonoxious comments in those threads?

And what about that psychotic creepy video where the character in game collects heads on and decorate his home with half naked women? Does this behavior makes that person more likely to be a women decapitating murdering Psycho in real life?

I remember reading loads of posts wishing that poor (abeit brilliantly creative) fellow to be overrun by truck or die a very antagonizing dead. Very "mindful" replies that thread got.

And what about rape then? Suddenly almost everyone seems to think that raping pixels brings you one step closer to real life rape.

In my personal experience I never saw any correlation between video games and real life, but maybe I'm biased or blind. In any way I don't need some study to underline this but I'm very happy that Sweden did such a good job pointing out the very obvious...

 

[kyuzo3567]

Arguing that violent video games lead to real-world violence uses the same logic as arguing that elevated ice cream sales lead to shark attacks.

I love you for saying this, we discussed the same issue in my Psychology stats class,and my teacher used the same example for why correlation does not imply causation. The reason those two items are correlated is: its summer time so we go to the beach... which can have sharks (depending where you live)

My prof. warned us: if we take anything away from this class, its that Correlation DOES NOT imply Causation... so screw you every study that says otherwise!

 

[maxben]

I agree, a right wing goverment in Sweden is a bad idea.

But honestly, I can´t blame people for voting on the Moderates. I mean, the Social democrats are falling apart, especially since they hired a goddamn tax cheater for their leader. The left need to make a full revamp, because right now there´s a good chance the moderates will win pretty much all elections withing the next two decades. And none of us want that.

OT: This is why I love my country, despite it´s faults. Ever the realist, aren´t you, Sweden?

To make you feel better, the Conservatives in Canada crashed from a majority with 167 to 2 in 1993, but after reshuffling and joining hands with other conservatives by 2006 the New Conservatives led the parliament, and won every election since (2008 and 2011) and won more seats at each that they are now a majority.
Not to say that was a good thing for us, but it just shows that politics/voting is far more fickle than we assume and a situation can change rather quickly.

 

[Char-Nobyl]

Arguing that violent video games lead to real-world violence uses the same logic as arguing that elevated ice cream sales lead to shark attacks.

Wow, you really have no idea how an analogy works, do you?

On the contrary, I know how they work quite well. The case at hand and the example I gave are both fallacies of correlation.

That's..A really, really poor comparison. Several mediums, when exposed to it, mentally alter your behavior in some subtle way. Point is that it isn't enough to go from violence in videogames = violence in real life, but that doesn't mean that violence in videogames = no change at all. We have age-ratings for a reason, you know.

Mhm. ESRB, correct? Pardon my skepticism, but their roots are practically the same as that of the Motion Picture Production Code [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code], a panicked response to a new medium of entertainment. Ever actually perused the ESRB website? The descriptions of the rating conditions [http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp] are particularly entertaining, and they've got delightful parallels to stuff found in the MPPC (or Hayes Code, as it's better known).

So, your theory is that "several mediums," one of which I assume is video games, can "mentally alter your behavior in some subtle way." In other words, "A fair sized group of factors can affect your brain in ways that are too minor to detect or prove scientifically," and this is why we have an organization as laughably Puritan as the ESRB?

For your own good, don't make such a logic-leap again, especially not with a flawed comparison like that. You'll probably get pounced on the internet by far ruder people than me (and I have no intent of being rude) in an instance if made at the wrong time, in the wrong place.
Cheers.

Let me break that previous point down:

-Correlation is not the same as causation, ie, just because two things happen at once doesn't mean one caused the other and vise versa.

-I've yet to see arguments about video games causing real-world violence that can't be explained by existing mental instability, and what remain are simply cases where police found a copy of Doom or something in the room of a crazed gunman.

-I stated that using correlation to claim that violent video games are responsible for violent behavior is like claiming ice cream sales cause an increase in shark attacks.

-I didn't invent that example. it's been used [http://intergalacticwritersinc.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/ice-cream-consumption-linked-to-shark-attacks/] many times [http://pineda-krch.com/2008/09/03/causal-basis-of-the-ice-cream-shark-correlation-fallacy/] before I said it here [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7592579.stm]. There's a few examples for you.

-The basic idea of the aforementioned ice cream/shark attack 'study' is that both ice cream sales and shark attacks actually do rise at the same time as one another, but only a monumental idiot would think that they were actually causal of one another. In real examples, it's not always so obvious.

Did you really think I picked those two things at random? Or were you just so eager to flaunt your perceived intellectual victory that you didn't stop to think about it?

 

[ResonanceSD]

This should really recieve more press than it does. Finally a sensible perspective.

 

[duchaked]

thought this had been cleared up before...but as others are saying here, of course opponents of all things gaming won't be listening >:/