Video games can increase aggression

Question

This source claims that studies show an increase of violence within men who play video games.

Comments

I very heavily agree with your research and found your article very helpful. I also agree and have seen that video games can increase aggression in people.

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Although the source of this article, American Psychological Association, is known to be peer reviewed, I think that this specific article is not the most credible. The article does include examples of two studies that can be looked up for further information and insight. Both of these studies resulted in findings that supported an increase in aggression from playing certain video games. However, these specific studies seemed to be more focused on finding out other information such as video games leading to a decrease in grades and violent games causing more aggression that violent movies, instead of focusing on the main argument. Additionally, the author did not provide enough evidence to create a strong enough claim.  In order to enhance the statement, more evidence should be collected and further elaborated on. When I searched up other articles with similar claims, a large amount appeared from reliable sources, like university research, that also shared that video games can cause aggression. Clearly, this is an accurate claim to make, but this specific article does a poor job making a strong and clear argument.

Answer 1

https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/05/health/video-games-violence-explainer/index.html

While I do think some good points are made in your article, the article itself is incredibly outdated. The article linked above is much more recent study on the subject, and it concludes that "where there are correlations, it's probably because of a third factor." The article also discusses how Andrew Przybylski, an associate digital media professor at Oxford, recently released a study of "more than 1,000 British adolescents that found no link between time spent playing violent video games and aggressive behavior."

Comments

I think linking additional or at least one original source material that is not from a news outlet would be helpful in this factcheck. The original source, although from 2000, is from the American Psychological Association, so having an opposing source from a source with a similar or related rapport in terms of validity and trust. Also the CNN article listed is from 2019 so perhaps a more recent article may have been beneficial and analysis to where CNN got there information from would perhaps build trust in this fact check, like the professor you mention and more linkage to them which was good.

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Good job in your factcheck by providing a far more modern article as the original article was really outdated. I do think that if you included a more updated article from a medical journal which could be more trustworthy than a legacy news site even though CNN used exerpts from the ASA. While the CNN article is good putting in an updated version of the ASA would be great.

Answer 2

Studies have linked videos games with aggressive behavior in teens. Not only that, but doctors have found that video games may be related to bullying, which has been founded as a risk factor for violent behavior. The American Psychological Association (APA) linked video games as a risk for aggression. It has also been found that video games can desensitize users to identify aggressive behavior and preventing those violent thoughts, actions, and behaviors. Directly from the APA, "violent video games may be more harmful can violent television and movies because they are interactive, very engrossing, and require the player to identify with the aggressor..."

https://yvpc.sph.umich.edu/video-games-influence-violent-behavior/#:~:text=Although%20playing%20violent%20video%20games,for%20more%20serious%20violent%20behavior.

https://www.center4research.org/violent-video-games-can-increase-aggression/

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/04/video-games

Answer 3

According to an article by the National Library of Medicine, video games can increase aggression, if they are violent. Playing video games can can increase anger and frustration , especially if the game is not going right or it is stressful. This can also lead to a form of aggression shown while playing the video game. Violent video games cause the most aggression because the game is based off of aggression, causing the player to become more violent or aggressive. In most cases, this anger and aggression does not leave the video game (as in the player is not aggressive in real life), but in certain cases it can happen that the video game player or user can become violent and in a change of headsace.

Answer 4

Although it might not always be the case, it is true that violent video games can increase aggression. According to this website I found sourced below, this claim is true because violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to situations with conflict. Video games wield tremendous emotional influence because of the way players identify with the controllable characters within the world of the game, to an extent, essentially melding their identities with those of the characters. With this sense of connection, playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming and promoting aggressive thoughts.

https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2000/04/video-games#:~:text=%22Violent%20video%20games%20provide%20a,aggression%20by%20priming%20aggressive%20thoughts.