Even if they were to contrast it and show that only violent video games light up these regions, it would not prove cause. When you are doing an activity that would stimulate the portions of the brain that control those functions, they will show activity more than when you are doing (or in your mind, ie video game) an activity that is not violent or aggressive, like soccer maybe (aggresive maybe but not violent).
The thing is, even if that part of the brain shows activity, that is normal... That brain showing activity, and the people becoming more violent, are altogether totally different things. I can play a game that will stimulate those portions of my brain - that does not mean my personality will change and i will become more violent of a person - if it were that simple we would understand ALOT more about the human body.
IE: It is factual that crime rates are higher on nights of the full moon. Does this mean that the full moon CAUSES crime??! But how would that be?! But it must, right, because the crime rate is up?.. it's a correlation... maybe cops see more crimes and make more arrests... maybe criminals take advantage of the lighting themselves... maybe it is a combination of both and many other extraneous factors - either way, you cannot take this information and scientifically state that the moon causes crime.
Psychology is a roughly 200 year old science - seriously, only 200 years! Imagine how short of a time 200 years is, and how many years of scientists proving and disproving theories and even what they called "laws" that were struck down by what we BELIEVE today.
Nothing pertaining to the brain which involves personality is as cut and dry as saying "The MRI scan shows that part lit up" - It is just not that simple, and they lead us to believe that it is... which in my opinion is bad science...
Let us be honest with ourselves for one moment - a lot of people that read this site are gamers, or at least know many gamers. This is very very general, even stereotypical, but i am a self proclaimed gamer so stick with me... Think of out of all the hardcore gamers you know - how many would you call violent people? Of these that you would call violent people, looking at the person, would you speculate the violence they assert is due to video games, or possibly another portion of their life/biology/environment?
I for one would suggest the public school system in America is more prone to having a cause and effect relationship on violent teenagers, or possibly the parents of the children themselves - but then again nobody looking at the problem from the perspective of the state or the parents want to credit themselves for violence, because they do not intend to create violent individuals... and the idea makes people defensive....
I see what you are saying, and actually totally agree with it. I only wish when people used scientific studies to further a cause they would at least word them correctly, or even give us the study to look at... From what small amount i have been able to find on this i am lead to believe that the correlation was made by using brain scans while children (or teens, ??) played video games, and wow, the portions of the brain that modern scientists know are active during emotional states light up... um yeah, i could have come to that conclusion without a scan... but them actually being made more violent as a cause of the video game is a totally different story.. When you take brain scans of people that are playing music, an insane amount of brain activity goes off - this does not mean playing music makes people violent, or even more emotionally inclined.
Rep. Roy Burrell (R) and Jack Thompson had research that purported to show a causative link between playing violent video games and real-world violence
Causative link, huh?
Anyone have a link or know where i can come across this research? I am failing to understand how they could show a causative link.... My limited knowledge would lead me to believe an experiment attempting to make people more violent would be unethical if not military... but otherwise it would be a correlation only, and correlation does not equal causation, no?
Point being, how are you going to prove people are more violent scientifically, it is not objective data, you would be showing a trend that could be manipulated by many other factors...
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Even if they were to contrast it and show that only violent video games light up these regions, it would not prove cause. When you are doing an activity that would stimulate the portions of the brain that control those functions, they will show activity more than when you are doing (or in your mind, ie video game) an activity that is not violent or aggressive, like soccer maybe (aggresive maybe but not violent).
The thing is, even if that part of the brain shows activity, that is normal... That brain showing activity, and the people becoming more violent, are altogether totally different things. I can play a game that will stimulate those portions of my brain - that does not mean my personality will change and i will become more violent of a person - if it were that simple we would understand ALOT more about the human body.
IE: It is factual that crime rates are higher on nights of the full moon. Does this mean that the full moon CAUSES crime??! But how would that be?! But it must, right, because the crime rate is up?.. it's a correlation... maybe cops see more crimes and make more arrests... maybe criminals take advantage of the lighting themselves... maybe it is a combination of both and many other extraneous factors - either way, you cannot take this information and scientifically state that the moon causes crime.
Psychology is a roughly 200 year old science - seriously, only 200 years! Imagine how short of a time 200 years is, and how many years of scientists proving and disproving theories and even what they called "laws" that were struck down by what we BELIEVE today.
Nothing pertaining to the brain which involves personality is as cut and dry as saying "The MRI scan shows that part lit up" - It is just not that simple, and they lead us to believe that it is... which in my opinion is bad science...
Let us be honest with ourselves for one moment - a lot of people that read this site are gamers, or at least know many gamers. This is very very general, even stereotypical, but i am a self proclaimed gamer so stick with me... Think of out of all the hardcore gamers you know - how many would you call violent people? Of these that you would call violent people, looking at the person, would you speculate the violence they assert is due to video games, or possibly another portion of their life/biology/environment?
I for one would suggest the public school system in America is more prone to having a cause and effect relationship on violent teenagers, or possibly the parents of the children themselves - but then again nobody looking at the problem from the perspective of the state or the parents want to credit themselves for violence, because they do not intend to create violent individuals... and the idea makes people defensive....
I see what you are saying, and actually totally agree with it. I only wish when people used scientific studies to further a cause they would at least word them correctly, or even give us the study to look at... From what small amount i have been able to find on this i am lead to believe that the correlation was made by using brain scans while children (or teens, ??) played video games, and wow, the portions of the brain that modern scientists know are active during emotional states light up... um yeah, i could have come to that conclusion without a scan... but them actually being made more violent as a cause of the video game is a totally different story.. When you take brain scans of people that are playing music, an insane amount of brain activity goes off - this does not mean playing music makes people violent, or even more emotionally inclined.
Rep. Roy Burrell (R) and Jack Thompson had research that purported to show a causative link between playing violent video games and real-world violence Causative link, huh? Anyone have a link or know where i can come across this research? I am failing to understand how they could show a causative link.... My limited knowledge would lead me to believe an experiment attempting to make people more violent would be unethical if not military... but otherwise it would be a correlation only, and correlation does not equal causation, no? Point being, how are you going to prove people are more violent scientifically, it is not objective data, you would be showing a trend that could be manipulated by many other factors...