Games Do Cause Violent Behavior (But Not Much)

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They’ll find flaws and of course there are flaws in every single study every done. So the gaming magazines are wrong. Games do cause aggression. They’re being defensive. I understand why, but they don’t have to be because the effect is so small and it’s affecting people differently. And that’s good. It drives me crazy actually when I read media on both sides.”

Professor Markey points out the limitations of his own research. Psychology under-graduates do not represent a cross- section of the public. The study cannot predict the effect of games on people who consistently choose to play violent games. But he says the overall body of evidence should neither be ignored nor abused by special interests.

Common Sense

In a way he sees his findings as common sense. “If you provoke an angry person they’re going to lash out at you whereas if you provoke a non-angry person they’re not. What we think is happening with violent videogames is that the player is being virtually provoked and therefore when they turn off the controller they’re much more likely to lash out at targets that aren’t directly related to that provocation.”

He stresses his view that videogames are just another example of the violent images we are all subjected to every day, through movies or TV news. “This is not a black eye for videogames, it’s a black eye for all the media that we’re exposed to and videogames just happen to be one of them. I’m not saying being desensitized causes you to be more violent or anything along those lines, it just makes us not get more upset in general when we see violence.”

But don’t violent videogames help angry people let off some steam? “That’s a common idea, but it’s not correct,” he explains. “You’re always told if you get upset just go punch a pillow, but one thing we know from research that’s done outside of video games is when you actually let aggression out it actually doesn’t have that affect. In fact, it usually makes you more upset in the long run. It would be great if you had a person come to therapy and all you had to do was have them play this violent videogame for a while to cure them.”

He rejects a lot of the criticisms bandied around about violent games, such as the ‘murder simulation’ theory which suggests that shooting games teach players how to kill. “I’m a gamer and I love first-person shooters. One of my favorite tactics is to do the circle strafe move. I can’t imagine that being useful in real life.”

So what’s to be done about all this then? Markey says, “We have the facts and now the question is how are we going to use those facts? The word that needs to get out is not that videogames are bad. When a parent hears that message, a lot of times they don’t believe it or they don’t think it effects their child. What they need to hear is, ‘video games are bad if your child or you are angry. I like the rating system so legislatively I hope nothing’s done. I just hope that getting out the information that videogames can have an effect if you’re this kind of person is extremely important.”

Provided by Next Generation—Interactive Entertainment Today