Study finds no link between long-term playing of violent video games increased aggression

The study recruited 15 male violent video game users (around 23 years old) and 15 male control subjects. The gamers played violent video games daily, but refrained from playing for a minimum of three hours prior to the experiment, although the majority refrained for much longer than this.

To evaluate whether or not the gamers were more prone to aggression, they were scanned in MRI machines while being shown images that provoked and emotional or empathetic response. In addition to this, they were given psychological questionnaires.

The psychological questionnaires revealed no differences in measures of aggression and empathy between gamers and non-gamers. This finding was subsequently backed up by the MRI data, which revealed that both gamers and non-gamers had similar responses to the images they were shown.

This finding was not expected. Prior to the experiment beginning, it was hypothesized that violent video games would illicit a more long-term aggressive response.

Take that, conservative puritans and SJWs. Liberalism scores one more once again!

SW material: Clearly the study didn't factor in violent Sony games, cuz as we've seen since the BoTW review, cows are fucking beasts.

This is not Fanboy Wars. Talk about the games, not those who play them (e.g. cows).

the virginia tech murder's favorite game was sonic....just throwing that out there

Clearly, I was talking about the games when I mentioned violent Sony games might cause those dangerous effects on cows.

I've played video games, both violent and non violent all life. Only things I feel hate and aggression towards are spiders. **** spiders

Tons of studies found this out, the mainstream media and whiners don't care, they'll keep spewing to the mainstream who will keep believing them.

This was known long ago by people who aren't idiots.

I'll always believe it's because we are a violent species, that we portray violence in fiction;

not because we see violence in fiction, that we become violent ourselves.

People that do stupid/violent stuff because they were inspired by some movie/song/video game... were always meant to show that behaviour anyway. We all have a violent nature in us.

Study after study has shown this but it wont stop SJWs, ideological game reviewers and ignorant self flagellating morons from acting like playing Doom will send someone into a violent stupor.

Games act as a stress relief. We can take out our frustrations on fake icons instead of real people now. They do the opposite of what people claim they do. Crime rate is dropping, we are fighting our wars on a screen instead of on the streets. We may be sentient but we are still animals with animalistic tribalistic urges but now more than ever we have outlets to let it out safely and people want them cut out for ideological, ignorant reasons.

Not surprising at all. All this hysteria for decades has lead to no concrete results. And thus the hysteria is just dwindling away. Especially since games are more and more accessable and used by a larger and larger portion of the audience, rather than just "that group". Demonizing it makes less and less sense with every passing year.

Besides lewd content on the internet is what is fresh now to be hysterical about now.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/03/08/a-tennessee-legislators-anti-porn-resolution-is-irresponsible-and-ignorant/

Love of my life from 2003-2007, Jessica would say they tested the wrong parameters.

The lack of playing violent games made me more aggressive, according to her. It was my outlet.

After my service time, a wonderful woman named Jules discovered the same thing in late summer 2014-spring 2015.

I don't think the video games make someone violent, I think it's the waking up in ten years with no motivation to make something of a real life that breeds depression. Games are one of many outlets, and one of many vices, if you don't manage it.

This should have been a given.

The brain is very aware of fiction and reality. It knows the difference between acting out a deep rooted desire and simply blowing off steam.

The people that have a propensity to violence have those base impulses without direct stimulation.

If someone was to go off after playing a violent video game, chances are it was only a matter of time.

It's more an issue of mental health in general.

Not true, I'll kick your ass if you say otherwise. :p

Sad thing is, that the studies results are unlikely to find their way into mainstream media as they are not conducive to knee-jerk, clickbait news stories that politicians can get conservative types riled up over.

Another bunch of educated idiots paid money to prove the obvious huh?

Next study idea: Gamers who are competitive fighting game players aren't great combatants in real life.

They obviously never took a visit to the Steam forums.

i think video games lesson violence to be honest. its a great vent of energy and aggression to log into a game and get into some combat against someone else. The worst violence usually happens when people have nothing to do or keep themselves occupied. It makes us maybe physically lazy but its a lot better than getting into fights in real life.

Been playing video games for around 41 years and in that time I haven't gone on a murder spree. Weird that!

A psycho will be violent with or without gaming. Here's your study.

It's actually the other way around, people who have violent tendencies can use video games as an outlet.

I wonder why Gamespot don't post these results? They are not averse to the odd psychological/ideological article themselves. It should be a triumph for any gaming outlet, something to brag about as confirmation that our hobby is indeed not the cause of all ills . Strangely all the outlets which proclaimed gamers were over and have lambasted us for so long don't seem to jump on this bandwagon.

Excerpts from an article in Time magazine in 2012:

As a video game violence researcher and someone who has done scholarship on mass homicides, let me state very emphatically: There is no good evidence that video games or other media contributes, even in a small way, to mass homicides or any other violence among youth. Our research lab recently published new prospective results with teens in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence indicating that exposure to video game violence neither increased aggressive behaviors, nor decreased prosocial behaviors. Whitney Gunter and Kevin Daly recently published a large study of children in Computers in Human Behavior which found video game violence effects to be inconsequential with other factors controlled. And as for the notion of that violent media “desensitizes” users, recent results published by my student Raul Ramos found that exposure to violence on screen had no influence on viewer empathy for victims of real violence. (A study published by Holly Bowen and Julia Spaniol in Applied Cognitive Psychology similarly found no evidence for a desensitization effect for video games.) Finally, a review of the literature by the Swedish government in 2012 has joined the U.S. Supreme Court and the Australian government in concluding that video game research is inconsistent at best and riddled with methodological flaws.

In fact, during the years in which video games soared in popularity, youth violence has declined to 40-year lows.

http://ideas.time.com/2012/12/20/sandy-hook-shooting-video-games-blamed-again/

This is obvious.

Doesn't take a genius to figure that out.

So many studies have found this, but ideologues still want to keep arguing against science. It's sad.

If the shrinks really want to do a study, it should about video games and health/fitness or maybe school grades instead of increased aggression.

It's the exact same hysteria which has surrounded movies, rock/metal/rap music, I bet people were saying the same about certain books back in the day. Dracula is an absolute masterpiece but it's dark unpleasant stuff.

Every time it crops up, its the same shrieking voices, the same "wont somebody think of the children" narrative and the same ill researched ignorance.

All idiots.

I can't let this thread die just yet. :P

In a follow-up experiment, however, they definitively showed that prolonged use of SW results in increased homicidal tendencies, particularly when paired with iandizion's provocative Link imagery

Do these studies ever look into multiplayer shooters?

If anything I feel more pissed off after playing those.

Not a shocker. Consumption theory has always been poorly used by the ideologues. It isn't that you see X therefore you do X which is how most seem to think it works. Human psychology is no where near that simple.

I would expect to find decreased aggression after playing violent video games.

That's what happened to dynamitecop.

I doubt anyone is really surprised that 23 year olds can play violent games and not be violent people. If that weren't the case, crime would be a lot worse than it is. I think a better study would determine the psychological effect on children playing violent games. That would generate useful information for parents.

People make me want to be violent, especially idiots saying that violent video games make me violent.

Violent video games help me not be that way.

*I kid, of course. I am glad there are studies now pointing towards the obvious truth instead of the headline-selling lies.

You're more likely to get violent out of frustration than the violence itself.

The participants in the study were all male, as playing violent video games and aggressive behavior are more prevalent in men. All the gamers had played first-person shooter video games, such as Call of Duty or Counterstrike, at least two hours daily for the previous four years, although the average gaming participant played for an average of four hours daily. The gamers were compared with control subjects who had no experience with violent video games and did not play video games regularly.

To avoid the short-term effects of playing violent video games, the gamers refrained from playing for a minimum of three hours before the experiment started, although the majority refrained for much longer than this. This geared the study towards finding the long-term effects of playing such games. To evaluate their capacity for empathy and aggression, the participants answered psychological questionnaires. Then, while being scanned in an MRI machine, the participants were shown a series of images designed to provoke an emotional and empathetic response. As the images appeared, they were asked to imagine how they would feel in the depicted situations. Using the MRI scanner, the researchers measured the activation of specific brain regions, to compare the neural response of gamers and non-gamers.

The psychological questionnaire revealed no differences in measures of aggression and empathy between gamers and non-gamers. This finding was backed up by the fMRI data, which demonstrated that both gamers and non-gamers had similar neural responses to the emotionally provocative images. These results surprised the researchers, as they were contrary to their initial hypothesis, and suggest that any negative effects of violent video games on perception or behavior may be short-lived.

The team acknowledge that further research is required. "We hope that the study will encourage other research groups to focus their attention on the possible long-term effects of video games on human behavior," says Szycik. "This study used emotionally-provocative images. The next step for us will be to analyze data collected under more valid stimulation, such as using videos to provoke an emotional response."

Another article on the study.

I've played bloody games for 40+ years and I don't feel like grabbing a gun and going out to shoot strangers.