I have long been skeptical of the direct causation link some professionals pronounce exists between increased violence and playing violent video games (or video games with violence in them). If something smells like a scapegoat, it usually is (think of the Internet in “Internet addiction”).
So it wasn’t surprising for me to read that more and more researchers are questioning these links, and suggesting that while there may be a link, it is a complex and nuanced one. It’s not one that easily fits into a 30-second sound bite.
I highly recommend the recently published, Grand Theft Childhood (by psychologist Lawrence Kutner and sociologist Cheryl K. Olson) for anyone who wants to understand this link more in-depth. Some of the book’s findings (as related in a Psychiatric Times October 2007 article):
It is uncommon for girls to be frequent, heavy players of video games, especially violent games. One third of girls in our survey played electronic games for less than an hour per week on average.
By contrast, it was unusual for boys to rarely or never play video games; just 8% of boys played for less than an hour per week. (Since game play is often a social activity for boys, nonparticipation could be a marker of social difficulties. These boys were also more likely than others to report problems such as getting into fights or trouble with teachers.)
Finally, boys and girls who exclusively play games alone are atypical.
In our survey of young adolescents, we found significant correlations between routine play of M-rated games and greater self-reported involvement in physical fights, with a stronger association for girls.
It is likely that aggressive or hostile youths may be drawn to violent games. There is limited but suggestive evidence that persons with trait anger or aggression may be affected differently by violent games.
In one study, players tended to be less angry after playing a violent game, but this was not true for subjects who scored high on trait anger and aggression. Thus, another possible marker of unhealthy video game use may be increased anger after a round of play.
It must be emphasized that correlational studies, including ours, cannot show whether video games cause particular behaviors. Far too frequently, this important distinction between correlation and causation is overlooked.
Surprise, surprise! People who may already exhibit signs of anger or aggression may be drawn to such games. The games don’t cause the anger or aggression. Such people may also be at greater risk for showing increased anger or aggression.
What the research does show, in a nutshell, then is this:
- Teens who are already angry or aggressive likely should be limited in their playing of violent video games
- Teens should not play M-rated games
- Girls especially should not play M-rated games
- Video game is an important social development interaction for boys. Parents should keep this in mind when taking such time away from them in punishment.
- And of course, all things in moderation. Playing a video game for 6 or 8 hours straight is unhealthy behavior at any age.
Read the news article: Questioning the Link Between Video Games and Violence
Read the Psychiatric Times article: Children and Video Games: How Much Do We Know?
(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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9 Responses to “The Link Between Video Games and Violence” (Pingbacks/trackbacks not shown below)
(I’m 20) I’d rather be playing (occasionally violent) video games than shooting up cocaine and drinking until I can’t remember all the boys I was with last night like the girls in this town do, for 6-8 hours. I’m able to balance drawing, writing, writing essays (I have not made under a 90 on a report/essay. Ever. The last grade I made on a final was a 99/100. I don’t want to hear, ever in my life again, that I’m going to be a failure at life because I enjoy playing games) owning and caring for a kitten, being married to a wonderful husband, and having friends who genuinely care for me and we can get together and laugh and have a good time without narcotics and alcohol.
You’re telling me, playing video games for 6-8 hours, is unhealthy? When I make straight A+’s on my papers, study psychology, write, draw, read, spend quality time with my friends and family and all of us are always cheery and happy, care for a kitten, pray and believe strongly in God, and am incredibly happy with my life and the people who surround me?
I know who I am, where I want to go and how to get there, and what I want in life, and I am happy. That’s more than most of America can say, yet I am unhealthy because I play games for that amount of time? You’re full of shit.
I am more successful than over half of the people in this country… and it’s not because of my grades, or my art, or writings, or my religion is “better” or some other nonsense you’d want to draw out. It’s because I am happy and content with who I am and who I am becoming as each and every day that I cherish passes. I don’t smile at people to look pretty and be polite. I smile at people because I mean it.
The definition of healthy, to me, is being well, within the heart, mind, and body. By that definition, I am healthy in all aspects.
I have life, love, faith, and happiness, and success because of these.
I don’t sit on my ass and flip through cable television in my laz-e-boy recliner, eating a tv dinner and looking for some reality tv show and feeling unhappy about who I am. However, if you are happy with those choices, then I am happy for you, but for the people who sit and stare off and whine and wish they were someone else, change yourself for God’s sake because you are the only one who can do something about yourself.
My mother brought me into gaming at a very young age and I have been playing since then. I didn’t, “grow up,” and then start playing games like GTA. I had access to these types of things because unlike a lot of kids here, I am/was able to decipher fantasy from reality. I didn’t take guns and knives to school; I had and have wonderful friends; I am a very family-oriented person.
It is the atmosphere in which a child grows up in and how they are raised that determines their mental stability and reliability on making sound decisions. Don’t pass it on games, especially with that girl stereotype and 6-8 hours bullshit. It’s insulting.
I’m more healthy than the majority because I am happy and content, and sound with myself and the world, as well as clear in mind, heart, and body.
I am disgusted at the lack of acceptance/tolerance in recognizing individualism. Maybe the kids down the street go out with knives, but take a look at their family and their home life and the world and area in which they grew up. Something, somewhere, went wrong: I played the same games, plus I am female, yet I never pointed guns at anyone or divulged in narcotics. It’s an individual-to-individual basis. No one grew up in the same way and to be categorized into a repulsive stereotype because of what I do and not for who I am is revolting. For the love of God, sometimes it’s about looking at the pieces that make up the puzzle, rather than looking at the finished puzzle in itself.
-Megan. shetiger21@hotmail.com
flewzighte at 11:30 pm on
May 18th, 2008
Megan, calm down. Research is about statistics, and statistics are about generalizations. Not every generalization made about gamers is going to apply to you personally. I understand your frustration, but it’s not a good idea to act like the angry gamer stereotype by writing a long defensive post on the internet. We’re lucky that some people are finally starting to write about video games from an objective, non-fearful point of view, there is no reason to take the results of their studies as an attack.
This is another subject, and I don’t have any evidence to back up the claim I am about to make, but I believe girls are far more likely to hide the fact that they play video games. Boys boast about how much of a hardcore gamer they are, girls often pretend they think video games are stupid, even if they play them every day. Often the games girls play, such as the SIMS and WOW, aren’t considered “real” games by “hardcore gamers.” So if a girl likes playing the WOWs, it’s almost as if she isn’t playing a game at all! Except she really is. This is one of the dangers of self reported statistics.
anthony at 1:50 pm on
May 21st, 2008
Are you saying WOW as in World of Warcraft? cause if you are i would like to point ou that world of warcraft is legit. people everywhere consider WOW one of the most hardcore games out there, demanding hours of time and dedication. I play myself and hang out with a WOW cliche at school, all of us are the basic people who play games at teh school. we haved played almost every major game out there ranging from the Sims to Gears of War and Resident Evil, Final Fantasy to Grand Theft Auto. and we consider WOW being the most hardcore.
Jeffrey J. at 1:58 pm on
May 21st, 2008
“Teens who are already angry or aggressive likely should be limited in their playing of violent video games.”
This suggests that the researchers were never angry or aggressive teens who found an outlet for those emotions in violent video games. I was that teen, and the catharsis I got from playing those games was EXTREMELY important in my becoming a functioning adult.
One need only look at Japan, the video game capital of the world, to find that the link between video games and violence is overstated. In a country where there exist rehabilitation camps for video game addiction, one would expect that a person wouldn’t be able to walk the streets of Japan without getting merilessly beaten and/or shot. Obviously, this isn’t the case.
Does the supposed “link” between violence and video games exist only in the West, or more specifically, in the US?
Sarah at 12:44 am on
May 24th, 2008
I’d be interested to know whether the author of this article thinks that reading a novel for 6 hours straight is unhealthy.
On a related note, I am surprised that Megan is capable of getting 99/100 in anything, considering her poor grasp of grammar.
Be a Part of the Conversation! Comment on this Entry Now:
(I’m 20) I’d rather be playing (occasionally violent) video games than shooting up cocaine and drinking until I can’t remember all the boys I was with last night like the girls in this town do, for 6-8 hours. I’m able to balance drawing, writing, writing essays (I have not made under a 90 on a report/essay. Ever. The last grade I made on a final was a 99/100. I don’t want to hear, ever in my life again, that I’m going to be a failure at life because I enjoy playing games) owning and caring for a kitten, being married to a wonderful husband, and having friends who genuinely care for me and we can get together and laugh and have a good time without narcotics and alcohol.
You’re telling me, playing video games for 6-8 hours, is unhealthy? When I make straight A+’s on my papers, study psychology, write, draw, read, spend quality time with my friends and family and all of us are always cheery and happy, care for a kitten, pray and believe strongly in God, and am incredibly happy with my life and the people who surround me?
I know who I am, where I want to go and how to get there, and what I want in life, and I am happy. That’s more than most of America can say, yet I am unhealthy because I play games for that amount of time? You’re full of shit.
I am more successful than over half of the people in this country… and it’s not because of my grades, or my art, or writings, or my religion is “better” or some other nonsense you’d want to draw out. It’s because I am happy and content with who I am and who I am becoming as each and every day that I cherish passes. I don’t smile at people to look pretty and be polite. I smile at people because I mean it.
The definition of healthy, to me, is being well, within the heart, mind, and body. By that definition, I am healthy in all aspects.
I have life, love, faith, and happiness, and success because of these.
I don’t sit on my ass and flip through cable television in my laz-e-boy recliner, eating a tv dinner and looking for some reality tv show and feeling unhappy about who I am. However, if you are happy with those choices, then I am happy for you, but for the people who sit and stare off and whine and wish they were someone else, change yourself for God’s sake because you are the only one who can do something about yourself.
My mother brought me into gaming at a very young age and I have been playing since then. I didn’t, “grow up,” and then start playing games like GTA. I had access to these types of things because unlike a lot of kids here, I am/was able to decipher fantasy from reality. I didn’t take guns and knives to school; I had and have wonderful friends; I am a very family-oriented person.
It is the atmosphere in which a child grows up in and how they are raised that determines their mental stability and reliability on making sound decisions. Don’t pass it on games, especially with that girl stereotype and 6-8 hours bullshit. It’s insulting.
I’m more healthy than the majority because I am happy and content, and sound with myself and the world, as well as clear in mind, heart, and body.
I am disgusted at the lack of acceptance/tolerance in recognizing individualism. Maybe the kids down the street go out with knives, but take a look at their family and their home life and the world and area in which they grew up. Something, somewhere, went wrong: I played the same games, plus I am female, yet I never pointed guns at anyone or divulged in narcotics. It’s an individual-to-individual basis. No one grew up in the same way and to be categorized into a repulsive stereotype because of what I do and not for who I am is revolting. For the love of God, sometimes it’s about looking at the pieces that make up the puzzle, rather than looking at the finished puzzle in itself.
-Megan. shetiger21@hotmail.com
Megan, calm down. Research is about statistics, and statistics are about generalizations. Not every generalization made about gamers is going to apply to you personally. I understand your frustration, but it’s not a good idea to act like the angry gamer stereotype by writing a long defensive post on the internet. We’re lucky that some people are finally starting to write about video games from an objective, non-fearful point of view, there is no reason to take the results of their studies as an attack.
This is another subject, and I don’t have any evidence to back up the claim I am about to make, but I believe girls are far more likely to hide the fact that they play video games. Boys boast about how much of a hardcore gamer they are, girls often pretend they think video games are stupid, even if they play them every day. Often the games girls play, such as the SIMS and WOW, aren’t considered “real” games by “hardcore gamers.” So if a girl likes playing the WOWs, it’s almost as if she isn’t playing a game at all! Except she really is. This is one of the dangers of self reported statistics.
Are you saying WOW as in World of Warcraft? cause if you are i would like to point ou that world of warcraft is legit. people everywhere consider WOW one of the most hardcore games out there, demanding hours of time and dedication. I play myself and hang out with a WOW cliche at school, all of us are the basic people who play games at teh school. we haved played almost every major game out there ranging from the Sims to Gears of War and Resident Evil, Final Fantasy to Grand Theft Auto. and we consider WOW being the most hardcore.
“Teens who are already angry or aggressive likely should be limited in their playing of violent video games.”
This suggests that the researchers were never angry or aggressive teens who found an outlet for those emotions in violent video games. I was that teen, and the catharsis I got from playing those games was EXTREMELY important in my becoming a functioning adult.
One need only look at Japan, the video game capital of the world, to find that the link between video games and violence is overstated. In a country where there exist rehabilitation camps for video game addiction, one would expect that a person wouldn’t be able to walk the streets of Japan without getting merilessly beaten and/or shot. Obviously, this isn’t the case.
Does the supposed “link” between violence and video games exist only in the West, or more specifically, in the US?
I’d be interested to know whether the author of this article thinks that reading a novel for 6 hours straight is unhealthy.
On a related note, I am surprised that Megan is capable of getting 99/100 in anything, considering her poor grasp of grammar.
