Playing violent video games translates to violent behavior

Question

This article states that playing violent video games such as Call of Duty and Fortnite can increase violent behaviors shown in teenagers and younger children. Is this true?

Comments

Do violent video games cause violence? I would say that half of this can be based on opinions and half is based on experiments, facts, and scientific results. But, by fact-checking this claim, I find it to be semi-true because there is still not a lot of correlation to all types of violence, it only talks about physical. There is statement in the article that says, "He discovered that playing video games, no matter how bloody, did not predict violent behavior." But, there is also some statements in the article that say otherwise, so it is kind of difficult to determine the actual answer.

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I wonder if there is a clearer source that proves the direct cause and effect of playing violent video games and exhibiting violent behaviors, rather than just a correlation. Causation, not just corrilation.

Answer 1

The arcticle that is shown in this claim talks about a connection between video games and PHYSICAL violence. However in this article, Standford researchers had conducted tons of medical research on people and there hasn't been any sort of concrete evidence of a link between video games and physical violence, however there is an increase of aggression but nothing leading to any sort of murderous intent. 

Answer 2

This claim appears to be true, however it is a little unclear if the claim is relying a little too much on correlation. There are mixed feelings in the scientific community about whether or not playing violent video games causes violent behavior in young people, specifically males, or if young males who prefer playing violent video games are also those who are predisposed to act and think in violent ways in real life. The American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have both made statements and conducted studies with results showing the connection between violent video games and violent behavior, but many consider this view being outdated. 

A report by the Youth Violence Prevention Center states that violent video games may increase a young persons risk for precursors for violent actions, but not cause violent actions directly, "Although playing violent video games may not necessarily determine violent or aggressive behavior, it may increase precursors to violent behavior.  In fact, Dr. Olson points out that violent video games may be related to bullying, which researchers have found to be a risk factor for more serious violent behavior." 

Comments

This is a really nice fact check specifically because of how much more in depth you go in about a young persons violent behavior when it comes to video games and how there could be increase in a young persons risk for violent actions but it doesn’t directly result to violent action.(Based on the article you stated)

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Thank you for the helpful response. I didn't know that there was such disagreement in scientific fields about this topic. I never thought about the relation between bullying and violence versus video games and violence so thank you for pointing that out.

Answer 3

While media has used video games as a scapegoat for gun violence, there is no credible study that demonstrates a causational relationship between video game usage and violent crimes. The Sanford Brainstorm Lab reviewed 82 medical research articles covering studying on the subject and found that "current medical research and scholarship have not found any causal link between playing video games and violent behavior." Furthermore, analysis of FBI crime reports has indicated there to be no correlation between video game sales and crimes committed.

https://fortune.com/2023/05/02/stanford-researchers-scoured-every-reputable-study-link-between-video-games-gun-violence-politics-mental-health-dupee-thvar-vasan/

Answer 4

This claim is incredibly popular, and is widely believed to be true. There has been lots of research done on the topic, and several sources have claimed there is a connection. However, other sources have not only argued against that claim, but offered reasoning for the false results.

In an article posted by the University of Oxford, several researchers of their school clams there is no relationship between aggressive behavior in teens and the amount of time spent playing violent video games. For their research, they asked parents and carers to speak on the chid’s behavior, and had the video games classified using official rating systems (Pan European Game Information and Entertainment Software Rating Board).

There are a few extra points to take from this article. Of course, the fact their research was done with British kids can lead to a lack of external validity. However, even if these results are questionable, the article also provides reasons to doubt other studies as well. Unlike this study, others have relied on self-reported data from teenagers. They also cite researcher bias as a reason for possible incorrect findings.

In the end, this article doesn’t connect violent video games to violent behavior, but does point out how other situations, such as trash-talking or stress can lead to teenagers getting more aggressive (But this can result from most video games, regardless of genre).

Answer 5

The claim that violent video games causes physically violent behavior in adolescents is false. In a study done by the University of Oxford, there is "not cause for concern." and it is one of the most definitive studies to date. Instead of relying on self-reported data from the subjects, they used subjective and objective data to prevent varying results. While video games can increase anger, resulting in things like trolling others or trash talking, it does not have direct correlation with an increase in physically violent behavior.