In Defense of Violent Video Games. Dr.
Patrick Markey is an associate professor of psychology at Villanova University, the director of the Interpersonal Research Laboratory, and a former president of the Society for Interpersonal Theory and Research. After having time to process the tragic events at Sandy Hook, I knew what was going to happen next. It was the same thing that happened after the attacks in Aurora, Norway and Virginia Tech. I was going to be contacted by a variety of news outlets and invited to join at least one government committee, all in an effort to give my "expert" opinion regarding what had occurred. I am not an expert on gun safety, school shootings or mental health. Presenting our research in relation to such tragic events implies that our findings can somehow be used to better predict and prevent school shootings.
[See a collection of political cartoons on gun control and gun rights.] ISU study proves conclusively that violent video game play makes more aggressive kids. AMES, Iowa -- Iowa State University Distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Anderson has made much of his life's work studying how violent video game play affects youth behavior.
And he says a new study he led, analyzing 130 research reports on more than 130,000 subjects worldwide, proves conclusively that exposure to violent video games makes more aggressive, less caring kids -- regardless of their age, sex or culture. The study was published today in the March 2010 issue of the Psychological Bulletin, an American Psychological Association journal. It reports that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive thoughts and behavior, and decreased empathy and prosocial behavior in youths.
The study was conducted by a team of eight researchers, including ISU psychology graduate students Edward Swing and Muniba Saleem; and Brad Bushman, a former Iowa State psychology professor who now is on the faculty at the University of Michigan. Do violent video games lead to real violence?" On April 20, 1999, two seniors walked into their Colorado high school carrying assault rifles, and they opened fire.
They shot dozens of people, killing 12 students and one teacher, and the nation was floored. School shootings had happened before, but this was a new scope of carnage, and in the ensuing search for answers it came out the shooters had spent a lot of time playing violent video games [source: Ward]. Since then, in the wake of each new, senseless massacre, the entertainment proclivities of the shooters are one of the first things reported by the press. The 20-year-old who killed 20 first-graders and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut in 2012 played violent video games. So did the 24-year-old who shot dozens of people in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater that same year [source: Jaccarino].
Researcher Says Linking Video Games to Gun Violence Is a ‘Classic Illusory Correlation’ Wouldn’t it be easy if everything people thought was true was true?
Aliens — they live among us! If you don’t forward that chain letter to 10 people — you’re dead! If you say Candyman three times into a mirror — also dead! If you play games where you shoot people — you’re going to really want to shoot people! Violent Video Games Affect Self Control And Unethical Behavior - Sci-Fi & Gaming News. November 25, 2013 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Ever since the horrific incident at Columbine High School, violent video games and mass shootings have been intertwined.
Now, a new study from an international team of researchers has found playing violent video games not only increases aggression but can also cause players to exhibit less self-control and more unethical behaviors. Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression. Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study provides the first experimental evidence that the negative effects of playing violent video games can accumulate over time.
Researchers found that people who played a violent video game for three consecutive days showed increases in aggressive behavior and hostile expectations each day they played. Meanwhile, those who played nonviolent games showed no meaningful changes in aggression or hostile expectations over that period. Although other experimental studies have shown that a single session of playing a violent video game increased short-term aggression, this is the first to show longer-term effects, said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University. “It’s important to know the long-term causal effects of violent video games, because so many young people regularly play these games,” Bushman said. VideoGames1.pdf. Video Games ProCon.org. Do violent video games increase aggression?