Videogames Really Are Linked to Violence

ahoehn writes "Amanda Schaffer has written a refreshingly balanced piece about the connection between video games and violence. Instead of regurgitating the typical reactionary voices in this debate, she looks at what scientific studies suggest about the issue. From the article: 'Pathological acts of course have multiple, complex causes and are terribly hard to predict. And clearly, millions of people play Counter-Strike, Halo, and Doom and never commit crimes. But the subtler question is whether exposure to video-game violence is one risk factor for increased aggression: Is it associated with shifts in attitudes or responses that may predispose kids to act out? A large body of evidence suggests that this may be so ... Given this, it makes sense to be specific about which games may be linked to harmful effects and which to neutral or good ones. Better research is also needed to understand whether some kids are more vulnerable to video-game violence, and how exposure interacts with other risk factors for aggression like poverty, psychological disorders, and a history of abuse.'"

Comments

maybe violent people like violent video games

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not a scientist, but I've played one in a video game.

In other news, my butt is linked to my nose

[unity100]

But what is important is, which one of them is the major culprit in the process of "farting".



with the fantastically loose relation-establishing logic of this article, correlation between snooker, billards and 3-pool and violence can be established too. But, we then need to discern which of these billards game types are a major factor in committing violent crimes.

Re:In other news, my butt is linked to my nose

[Anonymous Coward]

But what is important is, which one of them is the major culprit in the process of "farting".

Well, conventional wisdom suggests that "he who smelt it, dealt it" so I'd say the nose plays a pretty important role.