Long-term Study Finds No Link Between Video Game Violence and Real Violence

SternisheFan sends news that a study has been completed on the long-term effects of violence in movies and video games on violence in real life. A researcher at Stetson University found no link between the consumption of violent media and an increase in societal violence. The study was published in the Journal of Communication. From the article: "Entertainment Software Ratings Board ratings were used to estimate the violent content of the most popular video games for the years 1996-2011. These estimates of societal video game violence consumption were correlated against federal data on youth violence rates during the same years. Violent video game consumption was strongly correlated with declines in youth violence. However, it was concluded that such a correlation is most likely due to chance and does not indicate video games caused the decline in youth violence. ... Previous studies have focused on laboratory experiments and aggression as a response to movie and videogame violence, but this does not match well with real-life exposure.

Comments

Re:No link?

[roc97007]

I would actually have expected a reverse link -- violent video games having a cathartic effect.

Oh wait, according to TFA, there is a reverse link.

Re: Sweet, can we stop talking about it now?

[russotto]

She never claimed that games turn people into misogynists

She does, in fact, claim that. She just uses more words to do it.

In other words, viewing media that frames women as objects or sexual playthings, profoundly impacts how real life women are perceived and treated in the world around us. And that is all without even taking into account how video games allow for the more participatory form of objectification that we've been discussing in this episode.

Compounding the problem is the widespread belief that, despite all the evidence, exposure to media has no real world impact. While it may be comforting to think we all have a personal force field protecting us from outside influences, this is simply not the case. Scholars sometimes refer to this type of denial as the âoethird person effectâ, which is the tendency for people to believe that they are personally immune to media's effects even if others may be influenced or manipulated. Paradoxically and somewhat ironically, those who most strongly believe that media is just harmless entertainment are also the ones most likely to uncritically internalize harmful media messages.

In short, the more you think you cannot be affected, the more likely you are to be affected.

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's OK. The null hypothesis is always that a correlation does not exist. Hand waving while supporting the null hypothesis is perfectly acceptable. If the evidence does not clearly support correlation, then the assumption must be that no correlation exists, much less causation.