Violence in videogames
Link of the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB6vTkvi9to
Article from the NY Times:
Social scientists have been studying and debating the effects of media
violence on behavior since the 1950s, and video games in particular
since the 1980s. The issue is especially relevant today, because the
games are more realistic and bloodier than ever, and because most
American boys play them at some point. Girls play at lower rates and are
significantly less likely to play violent games.
A burst of new research has begun to clarify what can and cannot be said
about the effects of violent gaming. Playing the games can and does
stir hostile urges and mildly aggressive behavior in the short term.
Moreover, youngsters who develop a gaming habit can become slightly more
aggressive — as measured by clashes with peers, for instance — at least
over a period of a year or two.
Yet it is not at all clear whether, over longer periods, such a habit
increases the likelihood that a person will commit a violent crime, like
murder, rape, or assault, much less a Newtown-like massacre. (Such calculated rampages are too rare to study in any rigorous way, researchers agree.)
The research falls into three categories: short-term laboratory
experiments; longer-term studies, often based in schools; and
correlation studies — between playing time and aggression, for instance,
or between video game sales and trends in violent crime.
Lab experiments confirm what any gamer knows in his gut: playing games
like “Call of Duty,” “Killzone 3” or “Battlefield 3” stirs the blood. In
one recent study, Christopher Barlett, a psychologist at Iowa State
University, led a research team that had 47 undergraduates play “Mortal
Kombat: Deadly Alliance” for 15 minutes. Afterward, the team took
various measures of arousal, both physical and psychological. It also
tested whether the students would behave more aggressively, by having
them dole out hot sauce to a fellow student who, they were told, did not
like spicy food but had to swallow the sauce.
Sure enough, compared with a group who had played a nonviolent video
game, those who had been engaged in “Mortal Kombat” were more aggressive
across the board. They gave their fellow students significantly bigger
portions of the hot sauce.
Many similar studies have found the same thing: A dose of violent gaming
makes people act a little more rudely than they would otherwise, at
least for a few minutes after playing.
It is far harder to determine whether cumulative exposure leads to
real-world hostility over the long term. Some studies in schools have
found that over time digital warriors get into increasing numbers of
scrapes with peers — fights in the schoolyard, for example. In a report published last summer,
psychologists at Brock University in Ontario found that longer periods
of violent video game playing among high school students predicted a
slightly higher number of such incidents over time. Some studies done in schools or elsewhere have found that it is
aggressive children who are the most likely to be drawn to violent video
games in the first place; they are self-selected to be in more
schoolyard conflicts. And some studies are not able to control for
outside factors, like family situation or mood problems.
What is the major influence that violent games have on people?
