Studies Link Video Games
To Aggressive Behavior
By Melissa Schorr

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Violent video games may indeed increase aggressive behavior, two Iowa State psychologists conclude after conducting a comprehensive review of the literature in this hotly debated field. However, other experts say the research to date is still not conclusive.

``Violent video games increase aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings and arousal, which might explain why they increase aggressive behavior,'' co-author Dr. Brad J. Bushman, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, told Reuters Health. ``Some parents don't think twice about letting their kids play violent video games, but these effects are not trivial.''

The article cites recent high-profile school shootings such as Columbine High School, where the two shooters reportedly were fans of the video game Doom.

Researchers have argued for decades that watching violence on television and in films is linked to an increase in aggression, and are now extending that assertion to the video game industry. However, research into the effect of video games has not been as comprehensive as multi-decade research on television and movies.

Bushman and his colleague Dr. Craig A. Anderson reviewed 35 studies conducted through 2000 on the effect of violent video games on more than 4,000 children and adults.

The results will be published in the September issue of the journal Psychological Science. The two authors conducted the work with no outside funding or university support.

The investigators found that playing violent video games seemed to cause a weak to moderate increase in aggressive thinking and aggressive feelings, physiological arousal, and the likelihood of acting aggressively towards another person. Playing violent video games also decreased the likelihood the person would help another person.

``There's this tendency to believe violent media affect other people, but it doesn't affect me,'' Bushman said. ``Despite what people think, they do increase aggression, and the impact is substantial.''

However, media and violence expert Dr. Jonathan Freedman, a psychology professor at the University of Toronto in Canada, said the experimental study findings were few in number and may not be generalized outside the lab. ``It's very limited in terms of what it says about the real world,'' he noted. ``Lab experiments are very limited in these contexts.''

``The advocacy doesn't seem justified by the meager statistics and the rehashing of old data,'' agreed Dr. Henry Jenkins, director of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, who advocates working with game makers rather than imposing federal regulations.

``Even if this was right, it could not tell parents what they need to know about how an individual kid will react,'' Jenkins said. ``The best thing is for parents to be aware of what media their kids consume, make a rational choice based on their specific kid, and use their own judgment.''

SOURCE: Psychological Science 2001;12.

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