The unbelievable popularity of violent video games (first-person shooters, etc) has led many researchers and government officials to be concerned about the psychological effects of playing them. Craig Anderson (Iowa State) has made a career on experimentally testing violent media and the results of their exposure. He has shown in the past that violent video games as well as violent song lyrics can increase aggression related cognition and affect. Furthermore, in a new study, he demonstrated that violent video games can desensitize people to real world violence.

My initial belief about this line of research was that it was funded and developed as a way for politicians to regulate media they found morally unpleasant. However, after checking out a handful of Anderson’s studies, they are very methodologically sound and have convinced me that the effects he has found are indeed legitimate. The key link that I have never seen made (although this is the direction this work is going) is that increasing aggression during exposure to violent media and desensitization leads to one acting violently in life.

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PlayWhat » Blog Archive » Too much violence? First, play the game (8/21/2007)

    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 28 Jul 2006
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