Young People Who Play Video Games Have Higher Moral Reasoning Skills (inews.co.uk) 107
An anonymous reader shares a report: Young people who play video games, including violent titles, display more developed moral reasoning skills than their non-gaming peers, a study has found. Researchers from Bournemouth University asked 166 adolescents aged between 11 and 18-years old about their video game habits and questions designed to measure their moral development -- the thought process behind determining what is right or wrong. The children and teenagers who said they played more video games from a wide variety of genres had increased moral reasoning scores, including titles containing violent content. Violent games were found to have a positive relationship with moral reasoning while mature content was more likely to produce a negative one, the report published in published in journal Frontiers in Psychology found.
But.. but... (Score:2)
Jack Thompson told me that video games turn kids into real-life killers!!! /s
[sarcasm indicator added due to ADA requirements for the sarcasm impaired]
Re: (Score:2)
Jack Thompson told me that video games turn kids into real-life killers!!! /s
Video games became widespread in the 1990s, and were correlated with a dramatic decline in violent crime.
There were other factors at play, such as a reduction in environmental lead contamination, but video games likely contributed. Young males in their prime crime years were in Mom's basement playing games instead of out on the street with a gang.
Re: But.. but... (Score:1)
Keen observation.
Re: (Score:1)
And we've found the sarcasm-impaired guy.
Re: (Score:2)
The Atari 2600 came out circa 1977, and the NES became widespread outside Japan around 1985. Sure there was growth throughout the decades, but the 80s were marked by a crime wave.
More relevant than spread was popularity with young adults; the Playstation was the first console that was seen as something for adults; prior consoles were seen as 'for kids', for the most part. Now it was accceptable for a 19 year old to be playing Madden or Gran Turismo or GTA.
Re: (Score:2)
This would mark minors who do not play video games as unusual, not the norm. So why are they unusual, why do they not play video games, what marks them as different from people who play video games
Well, we all should be able to guess, who would play video games the least, why the testosterone overloaded jock strap douche bag class, celebrated by corporate main stream media, for their ability to sell crap products, looks defined as pretty, lie without qualm and can mostly be professionally managed so as not
Re: (Score:2)
Popularity with (young) adults and spread are very closely related in this case.
Consider also that the kids with a NES in the late 80s were, perhaps, ten years old on average. A decade later they don't want to give up their gaming habits, so the Playstation isn't just seen as something for adults - it's just the next console for the generation ALREADY GAMING.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
They have to learn a lot of mental gymnastics to justify pirating all those games.
You prove the study right, you obviously don't have high moral reasoning skills. The last 200 years of theft from the public domain by big companies and dipshits like you can't just wait to bend over and get fully raped.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
The last 20 years of PC games has been one of Valve and big videogame companies attacking and undermining game ownership and control of game software on the PC by literally stealing the game and chaining it to servers in their office, ensuring the game is n
Re: (Score:2)
you need to get back on your meds
Re: (Score:2)
He can't, the meds are now too expensive because the patents and copyright last too long, which allowed horrifying mega monopolies on medicine.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It was even worse because was not a "spiritual belief", but some sort of backward science that believed you had to balance the four humors (blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm) to keep someone healthy, so if you had excess of blood, trepanning time.
Re: (Score:2)
Trepanning was around long before the four humours theory. Plus the treatment for excess of blood wasn't trepanation, it was bleeding. Obviously.
Re: (Score:1)
I'll take the convenience of Valve over the PITA that was floppy and CD based games any day of the week.
Re: Naturally (Score:1)
Well the game was never realy ypurs to begin with, you had an (often non transferable) to use it (other limitations probably applied as well), ok as long as the apis the game used remained compatible with yor os the game maker had no way of remotly stopping the game from working, but what game that has single player is at this point in tome depending on the developers server for single player (steam to verify keas maybe) but appart from that ?
Re: (Score:2)
You may argue that their games aren't really depending on those connections over the internet, after all they've all been cracked sooner or later, but that is certainly what those software studios are trying to make their games act like.
Finish them off? (Score:4, Funny)
I just ran this guy down in my 1969 Mustang. Should I steal his stuff and finish him off, or give him a Med Pack and send him on his way.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Somebody showed me Grand Theft Auto when it came out. Moral reasoning skills?
You can have sex with a prostitute. Then if you kill her, you don't have to pay!
Wowzers. I grew up on Pac-Man and Asteroids. Different world.
Re:Finish them off? (Score:4, Insightful)
"You can have sex with a prostitute. Then if you kill her, you don't have to pay!"
Of course you don't have to pay if you kill her. Unless she has a pimp then you might need to kill him too but realistically I think he'd write it off. I mean clearly you are crazy, that bitch is dead anyway so she isn't going to be spreading word and hurting your rep, and it happens so rarely you just write it off as shrinkage.
The moral of the story? Prostitution should be legal so that sex workers enjoy the same legal protections as everyone else. The boys in blue are a giant heavily armed gang and you generally don't want them gunning for you.
Re:Finish them off? (Score:5, Funny)
The boys in blue are a giant heavily armed gang and you generally don't want them gunning for you.
Nah, you just drive through a car wash and it's fine.
Re: (Score:2)
Geez, with how you tell it you'd swear that the game was promoting a "dine and dash" mentality.
No, in this case it's more a of a "dine and bash".
Re: (Score:2)
Wowzers. I grew up on Pac-Man and Asteroids. Different world.
What if those asteroids were sentient, you ever think of that?
They are just there giving you good space then BLAM.
At least in GTA you don't saw the prostitute into pieces and shoot the pieces (or maybe that was in an update).
Re:Finish them off? (Score:4, Insightful)
I grew up on Pac-Man and Asteroids. Different world.
Sure, because cannibalism is so much more moral than shooting someone. Whatever.
Re: (Score:3)
Let me make an important distinction here: there is a difference between moral reasoning ability and moral behavior. Personally I think that moral behavior is much, much harder to manipulate than moral opinions.
Why might a game like GTA improve moral reasoning ability? Well, let's look at one of the most important theoretical ideas in modern philosophical ethics, Kant's Categorical Imperative. The most widely known formulation of that is as follows:
Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.
Without going into the reasoning behind this, Kant argue
Re: (Score:1)
The thing is: most players are capable of separating fact from fiction. Meanwhile you have these slobbering moral-panic idiots who can't tell their heads from their asses.
Re: (Score:2)
Somebody showed me Grand Theft Auto when it came out. Moral reasoning skills?
Video games are a way to explore how we'd feel about doing things that are considered morally questionable without actually doing any harm. When I accidentally gun down a civvie when playing a game, I feel pretty crap about it, that gives me an indication in real life that I wouldn't really like going around and hurting innocent people. By the same token a lot of games are set up to reward helpful or selfless acts, I.E. give RandomDyingNPC a medpack and he goes and tells the town what a good fellow you are
Re:Finish them off? (Score:5, Insightful)
For most healthy humans, they know how to draw the line between imagination and reality. In a video game there is no lasting life consequence for your action, if you die, then you start the game over again or just respawn. In real life we don't see Gen Xers jumping off buildings because of all the platform games they played. Because we know it isn't real, and much of the violence in video games, is often played to see what will happen, because there are no consequences, and there is always a reset switch ready for any major mistake. I can play a game where I wipe out woodland creatures, however in real life I feel bad for having to setup a kill trap for that mouse which is chewing threw the back seat in my car (After numerous human traps have failed), heck I would normally just take a spider and put it outside vs just killing it.
Now if Grand Theft Auto was setup where you had to learn the life story of every person you have ran over, spend the rest of the game with a non-save, non-restart and non-quit state. Learning about the harm you have done, spending years of game time in jail. For those who played the game would be playing it like in real life.
Video games give us an outlet for a what if, nothing mattered, we are able to take risks in games that we wouldn't in real life. Heck just running down a mountain in Fallout isn't something I would do in real life, because a simulated fall where you loose 100HP vs a real fall where you may survive, but you will be hurting for much longer.
Re: (Score:1)
In reality, there are two other possible modes of causation. And those two are probably more likely to be the correct ones.
Re:Finish them off? (Score:4, Interesting)
People don't have a simple "monkey see monkey do" relationship with media, but that doesn't mean it has no influence at all.
In fact the best games, the best books and TV, are often the ones that do affect the player/viewer. Star Trek is a great example, although it wasn't exactly subtle in how it went about it.
Re: (Score:2)
Are there Paragon points?
Do Medpacks have a buy/sell value?
Do Medpacks replenish if you run out completely?
Do I have a two-digit number of Medpacks?
How much money and loot does he have?
Subscription only site (Score:2)
Subscription required to actually, you know, read the article. So I didn't bother.
But you can bet I have a very strong opinion on the contents!
Re: (Score:2)
And gamers especially like being able to help NPCs for some reason.
I've read some theories that people who can't save money are people who can't picture the future where they will need that money, I wonder if other moral issues are similar where people just can't think out and picture the consequences of their actions. By playing through moral scenarios of any kind, people are kind of forced to think about the situation and can see it somewhat in real life.
Though I'm not sure how this works with games that take away any consequences. Maybe real life experience complement
Re: (Score:3)
I've read some theories that people who can't save money are people who can't picture the future where they will need that money, I wonder if other moral issues are similar where people just can't think out and picture the consequences of their actions. By playing through moral scenarios of any kind, people are kind of forced to think about the situation and can see it somewhat in real life.
I think there's something to that, but I think you missed something more basic here. In order to enjoy video games (or movies) you require a certain minimum level of ability to think abstractly. Some percentage of the population simply can't. People who play video games are going to be able to reason about anything slightly better than the general public, statistically, but it's just correlation without causation.
Games that require any sort of problem solving (as opposed to just action in the moment) wil
Re: (Score:2)
I've read some theories that people who can't save money are people who can't picture the future where they will need that money, I wonder if other moral issues are similar where people just can't think out and picture the consequences of their actions. By playing through moral scenarios of any kind, people are kind of forced to think about the situation and can see it somewhat in real life.
I think there's something to that, but I think you missed something more basic here. In order to enjoy video games (or movies) you require a certain minimum level of ability to think abstractly. Some percentage of the population simply can't. People who play video games are going to be able to reason about anything slightly better than the general public, statistically, but it's just correlation without causation.
Games that require any sort of problem solving (as opposed to just action in the moment) will raise the bar some more, and you'd get a larger statistical correlation with ability to reason about anything.
Good point, I'm being guilty of correlation without causation in my theory here too. The question of does something cause something else, or are people better at something else also attracted to that first something.
Re: (Score:2)
Basically, if you don't use a matched control group, you're shooting causality duds. Matching control groups is an art form, so even there you're not out of the weeds.
Children who grow up in homes with fewer books eat more ketchup, both of which correlate with poverty and low scholastic attainment.
* poverty causes ketchup
* ketchup causes poverty
* poverty causes book burning
* book burning causes poverty
* low attainment causes ketchup
* ketchup causes low attainment
* low attainment causes book burning
* book bu
Re: (Score:2)
Obviously, I missed some.
The way I would properly model this is as follows:
num_hypothesis_sets = 3^choose(k,2) for k correlates.
In this model, I've allowed A to cause B to cause C to cause A, but not A to directly cause B and B to directly cause A.
So for each pair (u,v) you get { u causes v, v cause u, no relationship } and each pair can be selected from that set of three items independently.
Re: (Score:2)
There's evidence that video games can improve cognitive function. For example, a show called Mind Field had an episode where the host tested his maze-solving abilities before and after playing video games for a week. The result was a clear improvement in spatial awareness.
This makes sense because video games are just simulations of some aspect of the real world, and the player is essentially practicing how to behave in those situations.
Anecdotally speaking, Kerbal Space Program taught me how to calculate or
Re: (Score:2)
In terms of studies, though: people who play KSP and Factorio are statistically much better at circuit design, and probably at heart surgery and patent law, than the general public. You can't conclude much from that, obviously.
I do think that gaming of any kind (not limited to computers) that requires problem solving will of course make you better at solving similar problems, just because you've thought through the problem. It would be amazing if someone could leverage that for some real world benefit, b
Then why do I hear these stories (Score:2)
of the "domestic disturbances" broadcast on Twitch when the S.O. interrupts the guy's Fortnight game?
Re: (Score:2)
Because his SO didn't play enough games to learn morals.
Re:Then why do I hear these stories (Score:5, Interesting)
of the "domestic disturbances" broadcast on Twitch when the S.O. interrupts the guy's Fortnight game?
The same reason if you worked in a union shop 30, 40, 50 years ago you'd hear the same thing through a 2nd or 3rd party. The difference is people are being caught because it's caught on video, in turn people can actually be prosecuted with evidence.
What? You think "domestic disturbances" are new or something? The upside in some cases is it actually catches the instigator leading to more appropriate outcomes then simply "it's all the males fault." And of course it also catches some people abusing themselves in order to try and get the other person fucked over.
Curious result (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe I just need to read the whole study instead of skimming through it, but the results seem strange to me. I think that this is obviously a study that would benefit from multiple repetitions and with a larger sample size.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah that threw me off as well. Most violent games get automatically rated M for graphic violence.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, there's a near-perfect correlation, but not necessarily.
Violent titles tend to have violence. Do you brutally murder a civilian? Do you spare someone begging for their life? Do you intervene to save an innocent? Your main tool is murder.
Mature content is developed for mature people. Adults have well-developed social senses, so they can readily ingest things that play on that. Do you blackmail that sleezy bitch so she screws you behind the salon? Do you murder a bunch of worthless guards whil
Re: (Score:3)
As a quick test, I did a search
Re: (Score:2)
True, although my point was the context of violence is important. Violent actions are pretty banal; violence in an emotional context is social training.
There's a point where it stops being just a game and becomes a simulated experience. Mature minds can handle that; undeveloped minds don't yet have experience in emotional context, and so can handle blowing up video game characters, but can't handle heavy moral judgments while blowing up video game characters.
Re: (Score:2)
Did they control for the age of the player?
Re: (Score:2)
So violent video games lead to higher moral reasoning skills, but mature (by this they mean 'M' rated games) games don't.
I don't think "mature" means quite that in this context. It seems as if they view "violent content" as being distinct from other "mature content", so even though either can contribute to an M rating, and even though there's a strong correlation between violence and the M rating, "mature content" is still something else. Check the Video Game Content section in particular to see them treat them as separate issues and draw distinctions between them.
Sadly, however, they never provide a definition for what "matu
Have they controlled for variables? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Have they controlled for variables? (Score:4, Interesting)
Testing Flawed (Score:3, Insightful)
So I guess this means (Score:2)
If I'm going to get PK'd for my sneakers or iPhone, it won't be gamers, it will be the non moral reasoning, non-gamers?
Do they define mature content ? (do not mod) (Score:3)
Correlation != causation (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Or it could just be that richer kids, who have more time and resources to play video games, also have more involved and attentive parents.
Confounding variables FTW.
Higher reasoning, but are they more ethical? (Score:1)
The study seems to say the kids who play violent video games are better at moral reasoning, but does that lead to more ethical behaviour? A person can be great at moral reasoning and still choose to make the immoral choice. Or are the kids reasoning through and then making better moral choices as a result?
Wealth, IQ, temperament (Score:2)
Wealthy people with lots of books and a really good education? Support an author?
People with a few books and much less education who had to find work?
The sales of self improvement books?
Now lets try that with computer games?
Well educated with the free time and wealth to enjoy a lot of different computer games as they are published.
Paying full price and having the free time to enjoy the computer games.
Poor but
Mature content and moral reasoning (Score:2)
... is a chicken and egg question. Are mature games more likely to reduce your moral common sense, or are those lacking moral common sense more likely to be drawn to smutty games?
"Moral Development"? (Score:2)
so the idea that there could exist a test that can measure "moral development"
is the kind of social-science bullshit that keeps cropping up here.