Violence in Video Games

http://psp.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/12/4/390

This study from 1986 is probably one of the earliest studies of the affects of violent video games on player demeanor and emotional state. The study had about 50 college students play two games, one judged to be “mildly violent” and one judged to be “highly violent.” The students then filled out questionnaires about their perceived emotional state in terms of anxiety, hostility, and depression. The experimenters found that the very violent game caused a much higher level of anxiety than the mildly violent game and the “no game” control group. Both the mildly and highly violent game responses had a much higher level of hostility than the “no game” group, but had almost no difference between them. Depression did not seem to be affected by the violence level.

I’ve always been highly skeptical about claims that “video games increase hostility and aggressiveness,” as I do not notice this in myself when I play even grotesquely violent games, so this is quite remarkable to me. An interesting aspect of this study is the dated technology in question. The games they used for their test are nowhere near as violent as recent games. Even the game they called very violent likely had little or no blood graphics, and the death and destruction (though there was plenty of it, according to the description) was probably very stylized and unrealistic. I can only imagine what these researchers would have found had they been given access to games such as Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and its many, increasingly violent and realistic sequels. On the other hand, I have always maintained that only the mentally unstable (or very young) could be seriously influenced by violence in video games. While it is true that extremely violent games should probably not be available to children under 13, it is always the parents’ job to teach children right from wrong and explain to them that video games are fiction and fantasy, and never to be taken very seriously. This is a direct parallel to the film industry – just because someone watches an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, they will probably not be inspired to kill dozens of people (or turn into a cyborg). Likewise, someone who kills people on a computer screen will probably not kill people in the real world, unless this person is completely deranged, and then it isn’t really the game’s fault either way. Still, considering how much is attributed to violence in video games (I still remember quite well how the media blamed the game Doom for the killings at Columbine High School), and the political movements to ban or remove violence in video games, this is an issue I will have to put more research into.