Considering violent behavior has been around since the day we crawled out of the primordial goo, the notion that video games caused or led to an increase in violent behavior often made those of us with a drop of common sense roll our eyes at the silly thought. Now, thanks to science, it appears as if studies on violence and video games are flawed. Meaning, Jackie T is the attention whore we always thought he was … well, according to this one evil scientist at least. From GamePolitics:
“Results from the current meta-analysis found that there were about 25 recent studies on violent video game effects, with conflicting results. Overall results of the study found that although violent videogames appear to increase people’s aggressive thoughts thety do not appear to increase aggressive behavior.”
In other words, no sh*t. The final nail in J.T.’s coffin:
“Also it was found that studies that employed less standardized measures of aggression produced higher effects than better standardized measures of aggression. In other words, better measures of aggression are associated with lower effects.”
… “there is little evidence from the current body of literature that playing violent videogames is either causally or correlationally associated with increases in aggressive behavior.”
“Despite the relatively young and sparse nature of the research on violent video game effects, some researchers have claimed that the evidence is conclusive. Yet a close read of the literature reveals that many of the studies used to support this link provide only questionable or inconsistent evidence.”
[Via NextGen]
