Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions by Craig Anderson
December 2, 2009
Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions by Craig Anderson discusses the myths and facts regarding the affects of video game violence on the behavior and actions of the gaming population.
The debate of violent video games and its relationship to increased levels of aggressiveness and violence within those who engage and participate with the genre of games has started to increase with the popularity of the video game industry. Anderson offers eleven myths and facts regarding the various research and theories which are associated with violent video games as a negative influencing factor in society.
An example of some of the questions which were addressed by Anderson was, the myth that Violent video game research has yielded very mixed results. Anderson reveals that “when one combines all relevant empirical studies using meta-analytic techniques, five separate effects emerge with considerable consistency. Violent video games are significantly associated with: increased aggressive behavior, thoughts, and affect; increased physiological arousal; and decreased prosocial (helping) behavior.” Disputing the assumption of mixed results and lack of experimentation. Other Myths are addressed such as, the myth that the effects of violent video games are trivially small. Anderson sheds light on this subject revealing that violent video game effect sizes are larger than the effect of second hand tobacco smoke on lung cancer, the increasing exposure to violence definitely has an affect on the societal actions and increased aggression within participants.
Anderson goes on to give his scientific theory in regards to the role of violent games on society. Through various experimentation as well as scholarly theory Anderson states that:
“1. Aggressive thoughts increase, which in turn increase the likelihood that a mild or ambiguous provocation will be interpreted in a hostile fashion. 2. Aggressive affect increases. 3. General arousal (e.g., heart rate) increases, which tends to increase the dominant behavioral tendency. 4. Direct imitation of recently observed aggressive behaviors sometimes occurs. Repeated media violence exposure increases aggression across the lifespan.”
However, according to Anderson despite these factors contributing to an arousal in aggressive behavior, repeated exposure to violence can also create an awareness to the danger of violence by decreasing “the normal negative emotional reactions to conflict, aggression, and violence.”
The article concludes with some unanswered questions regarding video game violence due to the lack of experimentation of this relatively new form of media. Anderson suggests that the lack of experimentation on the effects of video game exposure on long term aggression is not conclusive as of yet. Another gap concerns potential differences in effect sizes of television versus video game violence, because these two forms of media are very similar in the fact that they stimulate the same senses.
This form of media (videogames) is relatively new to society and because of this extensive research has not yet been carried out researching the effects on the human psychological state. I believe because of the lack of information society judges this form of media and uses it as a scapegoat to violent acts because of its high level of interaction and popularity within society. As time passes and this form of media becomes more mainstream within society, I believe that video games will be used not only for entertainment purposes but also be utilized positively within other aspects of society an example being used as educational tool.
