CAMBRIDGE
Violence in Computer Games: A real link to
aggressive youth or just a scapegoat?
Adam Esmail
O
n the 27th February 2004, 14-year old Stefan Pakeerah
from Leicester was brutally murdered by 17-year
old Warren Leblanc. According to Stefan’s mother,
Leblanc was obsessed with the game “Manhunt” [1], where
the main theme is to execute your enemies as gruesomely as
possible [2]. This has been one of many opportunities for the
mainstream media to be critical about violent games, especially
those which encourage the user to commit immoral acts [3].
Politicians have also intervened, most notably British MP
Keith Vaz, who is well known for his stance against violent
video games, especially Manhunt. In November 2009, he said
that he was “absolutely shocked” by the level of violence in
the recent hit release “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” [4]. In
Germany, ministers have agreed to prohibit the production
and distribution of all video games which depict killing or
cruel acts towards humans [5].
Studies vary in how they
carry out their experiments,
producing many different
conclusions.
However, has a causal link yet been proven between
playing violent games and an increase in violent attitudes
in children? Can behavioural psychology measure such aggression and explain how violent video games influence
such behaviour?
There have been many studies on the effects of
playing violent games, some which show minimal effects
and others that show increased aggression and feelings of
hostility [6]. The methods used to measure these effects have
involved either monitoring aggressive behaviour during
or after short-term violent gameplay, or conducting mass
surveys in schools and correlating long term violent game
exposure with antisocial attitudes. Studies vary in how they
carry out their experiments, surveys or statistical analyses,
producing many different conclusions.
One psychologist, Dr. Craig A. Anderson, from
Iowa State University, has undertaken many studies into
the effect of violent video games on aggressive behaviour
and cognition in children and adolescents. An example of
the psychological tests that Anderson and his colleagues
use to measure the short-term effects of violent game exposure is to have subjects play their assigned game for the
same length of time, allowing the subjects to play another
computer game where they send noxious noise blasts to
other people playing in the same game. The louder the noise
blast the subject sent, the more aggressive their behaviour
is considered to be. Anderson claims that the results of his
studies since 2001 all support, beyond reasonable doubt, a
26 THE TRIPLE HELIX Lent 2010
causal link between exposure to violence and increases in
aggression and feelings of violence and hostility in children
and adolescents [7]. Another psychologist, Dr. Jeanne B.
Funk from the University of Toledo, makes a similar conclusion that “support continues to grow for the contention
that exposure to violent video games is associated with
increased aggression and lower empathy” [6]. In 2005, the
American Psychological Association (APA) suggested that
a link between violent computer games and aggression may
surpass that between aggression and televised violence [8].
On the other hand, not all studies have shown such
clear links. Cheryl Olsen and Lawrence Kutner, directors of
the Havard Medical School Centre for Mental Health and
Media, have published their findings in their latest book.
They carried out their research by distributing surveys in
schools and holding focus groups with school children who
played violent video games regularly. Their study refuted
any link between violent video games and violent behaviour. They did, however, find that boys who played M-rated
games were twice as likely to be in trouble at school (such
as being in physical fights or damaging property), and girls
were four times as likely to do so. Even so they insist that
“violent video game play is normal for young teen boys”
and “most young teens who play M-rated games (restricted
to ages 17 or older) do not have problems” [9].
John L. Sherry, of Michigan State University, found
that the effect of violent video games was greater for older
subjects and decreased as playing time increased [10]. In
2007, the American Sociological Association published a
report claiming that there is no link whatsoever between
violent video games and aggressive behaviour, stating that
“excluding a host of other factors may make it seem that a
Citizens in Battle - Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2. Reproduced from [17]
© 2010, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.
CAMBRIDGE
direct link exists between the introduction of [media violence] and homicides. In all likelihood any connection is
incidental.” [11] Even the US secret service have refuted a
link after a study which found only 12% of those who carried
out school shootings were attracted to violent video games
[12].
There needs to be more
effective research before
anyone can say whether
a link exists.
[10]. In Kutner and Warner’s study (2008), two thirds of boys
and almost half of the girls said that they played games to
“help them relax”, and around half of the boys played them
to get their anger out [9], which shows some support for the
catharsis hypothesis. According to another psychologist,
Christopher J. Ferguson (2009), few studies have assessed
catharsis properly, since they have not controlled for prior
emotional states [14].
Clearly there is no consensus concerning the mechanism or
even existence of a causal link. Most recent studies show
that any link is minimal. Only Anderson and Funk remain
adamant that there is some link, but Anderson has been
criticized for not citing other studies which oppose his
theory[14], and by researchers Block and Crain (2007) for
improperly calculating data [15]. Even after all of this research, there are many questions that remain unanswered.
For example, do experiments which test for aggression, like
those Dr. Anderson carries out, relate to the violence we see
portrayed in the media? It also seems that the question of
whether games cause violent behaviour, or whether those
who are more aggressive are inclined to play such games, has
not been fully addressed. There needs to be more effective
research before anyone can explicitly say that a link exists or
not. For example, J. B. Funk suggests that using functional
MRI (fMRI) in the laboratory could measure effects from
specific experiences by examining how violent video games
affect certain parts of the brain [6].
Until then, what can parents and politicians do? They
should note that there has been research into the benefits
of playing such video games. Playing first person shooter
games has been shown to improve eyesight [16]. Kutner and
Olsen discuss many advantages, like providing a source
of self-esteem and opportunities to practise planning and
decrease reaction times [9,11]. Many adolescents play violent
video games, regardless of the age restrictions, and parents
should be less worried by the media sensationalism.
The lack of conclusive research may leave this problem unresolved, but an open verdict is not a justification for
overly restricting game content, which is seen as the only
solution for some such as the German Government. Only
after gaining hard evidence should governments and campaigners be confident enough to act. This is a difficult goal
to achieve, but with persistence from behavioural scientists,
it can be done.
Once studies have been carried out, behavioural
scientists try to figure out a psychological mechanism – that
is, a way of explaining how something affects the way we
behave or think - for the effect of exposure to violent games.
This way, there can be an explanation into how and why
violent media affects consumers.
Anderson claims that his findings support his mechanism known as the “General Aggression Model” (GAM).
The model claims that violent games make players develop
behavioural scripts - a sequence of events of how people should
behave in various circumstances (e.g. in a restaurant) - that
are related with aggressive and antisocial connotations, such
as fighting with school friends. Then short-term exposure
to violent games would cause physiological arousal and
impulsive action causes the player to “run” the script – this
is known as “priming” [13].
However, Sherry states that his meta-analysis (2001)
is inconsistent with GAM, since such theories would predict
a larger effect size with children, as they are at the stage
when they are actively learning new scripts, whereas adults
will require “re-programming” over previous scripts [10].
Naturally GAM does not fit in with those studies which
find no link between violent gaming and violent activity
in the real world.
An alternative theory, known as catharsis, suggests
that people will release aggression through a forceful activity, like playing violent computer games. This would imply
that aggression would decrease during violent video gameplay[14]. Anderson and Funk have both concluded that their
research evidence disproved this hypothesis [6,7]. However,
Sherry (2007) found in his meta-analysis that catharsis could
not be ruled out completely and that more work was needed
Adam Esmail is a second year studying Physical Natural Sciences
at Fitzwilliam College.
References:
[1] “Game blamed for hammer murder”, BBC News [Online]. 2004 July 29 [cited 2009
Oct 31]; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/3934277.stm
[2] Manhunt review, 1UP.com, 2000 Jan 1 [cited 2009 Oct 31] http://www.1up.com/
do/reviewPage?cId=3113026
[3]”Training To Kill?”, Mediawatch-UK [Online]. 2004 Aug 4 [Cited 2009 Oct 31];
http://tinyurl.com/yd6g5dk
[4] “MPs row over Modern Warfare game”, BBC News [Online]. 2009 Nov 9 [cited
2009 Nov 19]; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8342589.stm
[5] “All violent video games to be banned in Germany”, Gamezine.co.uk. 2009 Jun
6 [cited 2009 Dec 11] http://tinyurl.com/ry2wwu
[6] “Video Games” by Jeanne. B. Funk, from “Children, Adolescents & The Media”
edited by Victor C. Strasburger (2008).
[7] “Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents: Theory, Research and
Public Policy” by Craig A Anderson, Douglas A. Gentile and Katherine E. Buckley (2007)
[8] ”APA: Violent Video Games Lead To Aggressive Behavior”, MTV.com 2005 Aug 18
[cited 2009 Nov 19]; http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1507890/20050818/index.jhtml
[9] “Grand Theft Childhood” by Lawrence Kutner PhD. and Cheryl Olsen ScD. Also
see: http://www.grandtheftchildhood.com/GTC/Summary.html
[10] Video Games: Why can’t we find effects?” by John L. Sherry, from Media Mass
Effects Research edited by Raymond W. Preiss et al. (2007)
[11] Computing.co.uk. 2007 Mar 6 [cited 2009 Oct 31]; http://www.computing.co.uk/
vnunet/news/2184836/link-video-games-violent-teens
[12] Vossekuil, Bryan; et al. “Safe School Initiative Final Report” U.S. Secret Service
and U.S. Department of Education [Online Document]. 2002 May [Cited 2009 Oct
31] http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/safety/preventingattacksreport.pdf
[13] Carnegey & Anderson (2004) “Violent Evil and the general aggression model”[Online
Document]. 2004 [cited 2009 Oct 31]; http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/
abstracts/2000-2004/04AC.pdf
[14] Ferguson, C. “The Hitman Study” [Online Document]. 2009 [Cited 2009 Oct 31]
http://www.tamiu.edu/~cferguson/hitman.pdf
[15] Block JJ, Crain BR (2007). “Omissions and errors in “media violence and the
American public.””. The American psychologist 62 (3): 252–3.
[16] “What are video games good for? Possibly improving eyesight “ Scienfic American
[Online]. 2009 Mar 29 [cited 2009 Nov 19]: http://tinyurl.com/pnlkwa
[17] Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2. ©Activision Publishing, 2009.
© 2010, The Triple Helix, Inc. All rights reserved.
THE TRIPLE HELIX Lent 2010 27