Aggression and Video Games: Correlation, not Causation
There’s a new book out my a pair of Harvard Professors that defends the thesis I have always believed: that video games are a part of the social fabric and have not created a generation of sociopaths.
The book is called “Grand Theft Childhood: The Surprising Truth About Violent Video Games and What Parents Can Do.” You can read a Reuters summation of its thesis here.
Importantly, the book does argue that there seems to be a correlation between aggressive behavior and video games. From the Reuters article:
The researchers found that 51 percent of boys who played M-rated games — the industry’s equivalent of an R-rated movie, meaning suitable for ages 17 and up — had been in a fight in the past year, compared to 28 percent of non-M-rated gamers.
The pattern was even stronger among girls, with 40 percent of those who played M-rated games having been in a fight in the past year, compared to just 14 percent for non-M players.
…
Kutner and Olson said further study is needed because the data shows only a correlation, not causation. It is unclear whether the games trigger aggression or if aggressive children are drawn to more violent games.
“It’s still a minority of kids who play violent video games a lot and get into fights. If you want a good description of 13-year-old kids who play violent video games, it’s your local soccer team,” Olson said.
The best part though, to my mind, is how the authors (Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl Olson) argue that every previous generation has leveled the same sort of criticism against new forms of entertainment. The Reuters article cites comic books and movies; I hope, once I get to read the book, I find that Kutner and Olsen also include the novel. Yes, the novel. People railed against the corrupting force that the novel represented for impressionable (usually female) minds. We haven’t learned a thing.
Amazon link to book here.
2 Comments to “Aggression and Video Games: Correlation, not Causation”
Hi,
Yes, online games selection is really an issue with child behaviour like violence and sometimes aggressive behaviour.
Grand Theft Childhood is an good guide for the parents as well for guardians.
Thanks and Keep Sharing such Informative post.
[...] can desensitize the population at large to violence, as video game detractors often argue? Now, I recently blogged on Grand Theft Childhood, the book that argues that there is no proven causal link between playing video games and increased [...]
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