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Relationship between video games and violence
Relationship between video games and violence
Relationship between video games and violence
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Playing video games has become an increasingly popular hobby in the United States of America. Even though it has become more popular and successful, playing video games also carries a negative stigma with it. Some people associate it with laziness, wasting of time, or nerdy. Some go even further and say that violent video games cause aggression or even violent behaviors. When a major catastrophe like the Virginia Tech shooting or the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School occurs, the media are quick to jump to a cause for it, and they often link the shooter's behavior with a violent video game as a scapegoat (Markey, 2014). In those two cases where the violent video games were blamed for the cause of the shootings, the perpetrator either did not even play the game they blamed, …show more content…
They predicted that playing a violent video, especially with a same sex character, would increase in short-term aggression. The researchers manipulated whether the females played a nonviolent (Oh no! More Lemmings) or violent (Street fighter II) video game (also if they played as male or female in the violent game). The dependent variable was aggression, measured by both the Taylor Retaliation Competitive Time task (how loud did they make the sound for the other person) and a questionnaire to determine the type of aggression. The sex of the character did not seem to pose that much of an effect on aggression between the two violent video game playing groups, but those that did play violent video games did give the other person a louder noise blast. Their main motivation, as shown by the questionnaire, was revenge and not instrumental aggression. The researchers are interested in figuring out what specific characteristics bring about aggression in violent video games, and they also warn about too much exposure to violent
Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, Adam Lanza, Steven Phillip Kazmierczak, and Seung-Hui Cho all have a few things in common, they are all school shooters that have killed and injured a combined total of 149 human beings and are or were believed to be avid violent video game players, who also committed suicide immediately after carrying out their attacks. To the public, school shooters seem to share a direct connection to playing violent video games and that playing them leads to violent behavior. Violent videogames have become a highlight in the media and national debate for this very reason but, there is no scientific evidence to support the existence of a causative connection between participants of violent videogames manifesting violent behaviors. The media provides biased information that misleads citizens into believing that said link is well established and accepted. I argue that parents should make responsible and well informed decisions in regards to their child’s videogame activities in spite of the lack of scientific research.
Adachi, P.J.C. & Willoughby, T. (2011). The Effect of Video Game Competition and Violence on Aggressive Behavior: Which Characteristic Has the greatest influence? Psychology of Violence 1(4), 259-274.
In this paper, Tobias Greitemeyer recalls previous articles showing thatplayingvideogamesareassociatedwithanincreaseinplayer’s aggressivebehavior. Greitemeyeralsostatesthateventhoughthere is proof of these correlations, if one would casually ask an avid gamer, they would deny these claims. Greitmeyer argues that the player’s behavior in a video game compared to their actions in real life creates a discrepancy in the violent video game debate. Furthermore, Greitemeyer proposes that because of the severity of the violence in certain video games, the player’s perception of aggression may be different than the societal norms. Greitemeyer then states that he conducted two separate experiments to test if his two theories were
People have always been looking for a reason why horrible things happen. The media is quick to blame video games as the target and cause of many shootings that have occurred, ever since Columbine and Quake. People have been blaming video games for violence for years now, ever since violent video games have been made. News reports blame video games more and more for each shooting, telling the public how this person played video games for x amount of hours a day, and that video games caused him or her to shoot people, and how video games encourage and reward violence. Anti-video game lobbyists have been campaigning to have violence removed from video games, citing resources that they themselves have created as reasons for such, poorly done studies where they confirm that kids are more aggressive through how much hot sauce they put on someone’s fries. While unbiased studies of video games and their links to violence are hard to come by, recent research has shown that video games do not in fact have a casual link to violence, and may even have the opposite effect. Violent video games have nearly no link to violence in teens or adults.
In 1998, the US software industry sold $6.3 billion worth of video games (see Unknown). Not bad for an industry that didn't exist 25 years ago! Yet despite its continued growth, all is not well in the video game industry. School shootings in Littleton, Colorado; Pearl, Mississippi; Paducah, Kentucky; Conyers, Georgia and many other towns have shocked the nation (see Malcolm). Understandably, grieving parents and sympathetic citizens are searching for a cause for this "outbreak" of youth violence. It is natural to assume, "when children, the symbol of innocence, commit the severest of crimes, then something must be going wrong with society." (see Maker)
In the past few decades there has been debate over the positive and negative affects of video games with a good deal of focus on more violent games. Prior to and concurrently with this debate, there have also been similar debates over radio, television, and movies but, as should be obvious from the current breadth of media, no studies have definitively proven any negative affects. The detractors of video games claim, based on media effects research, that people who play video games with any sort of violence in them have heightened antisocial and decreased prosocial tendencies afterwards; this is the assumed cause of certain acts of violence including the majority of school shootings. The supporters of video games claim that there is an increase in hand-eye coordination and spatial reasoning, a decrease in aggression, and far more they also state that the media effect studies often had numerous issues. It’s my goal to try to set the record straight and do my part to end the debate once and for all.
The allegation that videogames cause violent behavior in children has been present as long as videogames themselves. Some researchers said that the Sandy Hook shooter, Adam Lanza, was one intense gamer. “Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech Shooter was seen by his roomates as odd because he never joined them in video games.”(Beresin) This debate will continue to go on in this country as long as there are horrific crimes that occur. There is much written in the research regarding this issue, and many differing views. The research that is presented in the next few paragraphs supports the theory that it is not the graphic video games that produce aggressive behavior, but other factors in a child’s life that create violent actions.
The purpose of this paper is to present a literature review on existing articles relating to the possibility of violent video games promoting aggressive behavior. The hypothesis set forth was that people who played non-violent video games displayed more Prosocial behavior versus those who played violent video games displayed more antisocial and aggressive behavior. A search was conducted on regular search engines on the internet, and on EBSCOhost using the title “can violent video games promote aggressive behavior.” The research articles presented are obtained from five case studies each focusing on different measures that were obtained, methods used, the participants involved, the designs of the study, and the results of the studies.
Derek (1995) was interested in what effect, if any, playing violent games would have on aggressiveness in different personality types. Ballard and Weist (1996) researched whether the level of violence in a game would affect people? responses on a hostility questionnaire. Sherry (2000) performed a meta-analysis on 25 video game/aggression studies; he wanted to see if there was any credence to the claims. All five studies are very similar in their intent.
Video games have been a rapidly expanding industry since their inception in the 1970s. Along with their growth have come concerns about violent video games and their effects on aggression and violence in young people. The endless numbers of school shootings have pushed this issue to the forefront. These events brought about the question: do violent video games induce aggression in youth? That’s the question I set out to answer by looking at research. The research shows that there is a link between playing video games and increases in aggression in adolescents. What implications does this fact have ethically? It means that video game producers and distributors need to be held responsible for their releases and the way they end up in the hands of kids.
“Contrary to the claims that violent video games are linked to aggressive assaults and homicides, no evidence was found to suggest that this medium was a major (or minor) contributing cause of violence in the United States.” (Markey, 290)
Over the past 30 years, playing video games has become one of the most popular hobbies worldwide. Not only has the video game industry become a multi-billion dollar industry, but it has attracted people from all age types. While video games today are played by both kids and adults, there are many issues being raised regarding the effects of video games. More particular, is the effect that violent video games may be having on children. Some critics argue that video games are direct indicators of child aggression while video game supporters argue that there is no direct link between child aggression and violent video games. While many people have their own personal stances, this issue is unique because it is unfolding everyday. Scientists and researchers all over the world are continuously doing research regarding the effects of video games on children. Even though this remains a field of uncertainty for researchers, parents should definitely be involved in being aware of what it is that they’re children are playing when they play video games.
There is no doubt that the media can spin a story into a shocking and scary account produced solely with the intent to sell. This information, force-fed to the public, can cause fear and hatred to develop within our country and result in gun violence and bloodshed. One reason for the amount of youth violence in America is the violent content in many video games. The average adolescent spends a major part of the normal week watching or interacting with some form of the media’s products. Video games are one of these media-based mediums and have become increasingly popular since the 1980’s.
Video games first appeared in the early 1970's. It all started with a simple white ball bouncing back and fourth on the screen. In 1986, Nintendo introduced its first line of home video game consoles. With the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) on the market, the home video gaming industry surged and immediately became popular among children. Since then, not only have video games increased in popularity, but there have been vast improvements in graphics, game play, and forms of gaming. Today, video games have become the preferred choice of entertainment among children and teenagers. Research done in 1998 has shown that kids who own video games spend an average of 90 minutes a day playing them. Clearly the video gaming industry is a profitable one. With the increasing competition between gaming companies, the advancement of technology and content of games began to change. One of the most significant and concerning changes in gaming is graphics. With the improvements in graphics the content of the game became more and more detailed and realistic. Visually violent actions can now be displayed on the screen. Images of blood, flying body parts, and gore have been integrated into every aspect of today's video games. Violence has always been a common factor in many games, but with the improvements in graphics and capabilities of gaming consoles, a growing number of people are becoming concerned about the effects on our children and society.
Towards the end of the 70’s one popular game called “Death Race” encouraged players run people over using cars. At the time many experts believed that this would lead to spikes in behavioral problems, and even violence(kain). Since then many parents and legislators of called to have violent video games censored, heavily regulated, and even outlawed. Every time the public declares war on violent games scientist and psychologists conduct studies which rarely find any evidence supporting this public outcry. Most of this panic over violent video games holds no merit because the research does not support the hypothesis. A common point many supporters use to show that violent video games cause violence, is the fact that almost all mass shooters in the United States have played violent video games. People who use this argument as a reason to claim the games caused the behavior are overlooking several confounding variables; people with antisocial or aggressive behaviors are more likely to choose the violent games to begin. This means that the kids who made these games infamous, were not turned by the games, instead they were drawn to the games. Also, as of February, the game Grand Theft Auto had sold over 60 million copies(Macy). Saying violent video games create violent people ignores the other tens of millions of people who have played the game and never acted