Violent Video Games Only Affect Some People

An anonymous reader writes "The media would have you believe that violent video games will be the downfall of our civilization and the cause of moral decline in young people. A recent study suggests that most people aren't so easily influenced by the violence; instead, just a few bad apples are likely to react poorly, with everyone else showing little or no effect from playing these games." The American Psychological Association has posted the academic paper (PDF) as well, in addition to a few related studies. One examines how games can be a force for good (PDF), and another looks at the motivations behind children playing such games (PDF).

Re:Duh

[biryokumaru]

Kurt Vonnegut once made an interesting comment regarding the Vietnam War. When he went to Europe in WWII, everyone just hoped that they wouldn't have to kill anyone. When kids went off to Vietnam, all the movies and media from the previous wars gave them very different expectations.

It was either in this interview in The Paris Review [theparisreview.org], or this one from Playboy [vonnegutweb.com]. I can't remember which. Seems applicable, though.

Re:It's not violence

[NoZart]

Depends on your location.
Here in Austria, Sex is a perfectly normal topic on TV while violence gets cut out even after 2200.

Re:Stop legislating for society's fringe elements

[Anonymous Coward]

> You don't universally ban/restrict child porn because SOME people will become paedophiles.

You do universally ban child porn because ALL children are incapable of legally consenting to it.

> You don't universally ban/restrict drink driving because SOME people will cause accidents.

You do universally ban drunk driving because ALL people who are legally drunk have impaired reflexes.

Smoking is banned in some specific public or semi-public locations because ALL people in the immediate area would have no choice but to breathe the fumes. The same restrictions would be likely if marijuana were made legal.

Re:A Closer Analysis of Your Axioms

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a whole slough of laws still in effect. They keep talking about it [washingtontimes.com] but there's always a ban of some sort. For instance, here's a high profile case for you [cnn.com]. But you said that the ban on handguns was repealed? That you can store them without being field stripped? You should talk to Gilbert Arenas about that. The set of laws in place is staggering.

Your quote is also hilarious. Hint: The Washington Times is one of the most conservative paper you'll find. They can't even give it away in DC. Not surprised to find them looking at one year's drop for the most extreme law being repealed. I also find it convenient that they don't look at the 45% drop in violent crime in the capital through the years gun control went into effect [wikipedia.org].

Re:Eh? But we do

[digitig]

Well, a meat cleaver is a lot harder to go on a killing spree with than a gun.

You mean like these [telegraph.co.uk]?

Re:It's not violence

[RivenAleem]

Watch True Blood and you get both!

(Season 3 starts this weekend)

Re:It's not violence

[hldn]

that the intent is to limit childrens access to the content (since it's undesirable physiologically and financially for 14 year olds to be pregnant).

access to porn leads to teen pregnancy? i must have been sick that day.

Re:islamic radicals

[NotBornYesterday]

Even wars that are fought in the name of religion are usually fought in reality for land, money, power, and revenge. Just like all the other wars.

Re:I always say..

[HopefulIntern]

I would agree they might be desensitised to animated/fake violence, but as has been mentioned already, were said normal person to witness actual violence (or even real violence on a tape) it would affect them differently. Two examples stand out, one being myself, quite possibly highly desensitised by violent video games and movies, but every so often I come across one of those murder videos that circulate the internet ( the one that stands out in my mind is a couple of russian neo-nazis beheading an immigrant) and my stomach turns. I felt disturbed and ill for the rest of the day.
Another example is with soldiers. I know a few, and at least one plays CoD and BF:BC2 regularly. However whilst being deployed, seeing actual warfare, killing, they realised they were not so desensitised after all..

Re:Eh? But we do

[Protoslo]

You link to a shrill neo-prohibitionist website, which bases their entire claim of negative physiological effects on one page (25) in report [surgeongeneral.gov] from the Surgeon General, which in turn cites only a single human study [escholarship.org] which used fMRI on 34 adolescents (age 15-19) who had engaged in binge drinking.

Results: Adolescents with AUD [Alcohol Use Disorder] showed greater brain response to the spatial working memory task in bilateral parietal cortices, and diminished response in other regions including the left precentral gyrus and bilateral cerebellar areas (clusters >= 943 ul, p < .05), although groups did not differ on behavioral measures of task performance. The degree of abnormality was greater for teens who reported experiencing more withdrawl or hangover symptoms, and who consumed more alcohol.

As you can see, the single human study can be used to conclude...basically nothing. There may be a permanent link between alcohol use and brain structure...but that link might very well be causal in the other direction. This study won't give you much reason to lean in either direction. They didn't even find testable behavioral effects to go along with their fMRI statistical voodoo; it isn't really convincing evidence that a link exists in either direction. In the previous section of the report ("Personality Traits, Mental Disorders, and Adolescent Alcohol Use"), however, a much greater profusion of studies suggest that alcohol abuse is caused by mental disorders.

In that vein, other studies have shown that people with unmedicated ADHD are more likely to abuse alcohol and other drugs. Alcohol and other drugs, conversely, have not been shown to give people ADD.

If you're a neo-prohibitionist, though, you don't really give a shit about the science. You already have the solution, and just need to find a problem.