New Study Fails To Show That Violent Video Games Diminish Prosocial Behavior 113
trawg writes "A new Australian study on the effect of violent video games on Australia has just been published, failing to find any evidence that playing video games affects prosocial behavior. The study compared groups who played different types of games, including notably violent titles like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, as well as non-violent titles like Portal, comparing their behavioral response through a simple pen-drop experiment. In a follow-up interview, the researcher said his perspective on how violence might affect people has changed since he started the research: 'I've played video games for most of my life and got into this research because I couldn't believe that violent video games could make me do something I didn't want to do, that is, be aggressive. My attitude has changed somewhat. These days I find it totally plausible that violent video games could influence people's behavior, but the real question is whether their influence is harmful, and I'm not yet convinced of that.'"
I didn't need a study to know what I already knew (Score:5, Funny)
Violent video games do not make me aggressive, so shut the fuck up or I'll punch you in the face!
in that case... (Score:4, Funny)
cowboys and indians (Score:5, Funny)
before video games kids played cowboys and indians. we learned at an early age to kill off the idiots trying to kick us off their land
Violence (Score:5, Funny)
Games dont make us violent, lag does
Guess the military can save millions then. (Score:2, Funny)
If violent games don't impact behaviour, then the military can save millions on all of those desensitizing programs (games) that they use. Of course their research probably differs from this study as they, the military aren't trying to show that violent games don't impact "pro" social behaviour. Wouldn't the proper study have been that violent video games impact anti-social behaviour? But then, maybe I missed the frames in GTA where you have to pick up pens from the ground?
Re:Video game influence (Score:3, Funny)
Find volunteers to start a soup kitchen for vampires
Portal is not violent? (Score:4, Funny)