Violence in Video Games

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Simpson

Mr. Scuito Junior Morality

4/18/06

 

 

 

            As technology improves so does video game realism. Games have come a long way since the blocky and innocent pong to the violent scenes of street shooting in games like Grand Theft Auto or bloody decapitations in Mortal Kombat. These have sparked a lot of worry that the violence in games like these can have negative effects on children. This was based on the evidence from the American Psychological Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Medical Association that violence in television can cause violence in children; this lead to hypotheses that violent video games would cause violence in children even more so than television. These hypotheses said there are four main things that theoretically would contribute to video games being worse than television in causing violence in children. Video games tend to have the player play from the point of view of the character doing the violent actions; this can result in the child having a greater tendency to imitate the characters’ actions. Unlike the passive watching of television video games require participation which can lead to a greater chance of imitation. Video games also tend to be repetitive by their very nature and repletion is a known learning tool and therefore could cause children to “learn” to be like the characters in their games. Lastly video games often use reward systems which similar to repetition is a known tool in the learning process.[1]

The Columbine shooting in which 13 students were killed and 23 were wounded was the result of two students, Harris and Klebold. After the shooting an investigation was held to shed some light on what could have caused such horrible actions on their fellow students. The investigation found heavy evidence that video games might have played a key role in the shooting. They found that their favorite game to play was the bloody first person shooter DOOM. They had even made their own customized version of the game where they could both play at the same time and walk around with unlimited ammunition and shoot people that couldn’t fight back, essentially playing the game in “God mode”. They also made a video for a class project where walked around in trench coast with guns and killed athletes. After the shooting one of the investigators said Harris and Klebold were “playing out their game in God mode.”[2]

            There have been many studies to test these theories and hypothesis. A study by Ballard & Weist tested the physical responses to violent video games versus non violent games. He tested it by having children play Mortal Kombat, a violent fighting game that depicts blood, gore, and scenes such as ripping an opponent’s spine out, with the blood and gore turned off. Then he had them play the same game with the blood and gore turned on. When the blood and gore was turned on they found that heart rate, blood pressure, adrenaline, and testosterone was increased from when they played with the blood and gore off. With further study they found that the increase was more drastic in children that already showed hostile tendencies.[3] This is important because it shows that the effects from violent video games might be worse on children that already have problems with violence.

            A study held by Kirsh found that compared to violent video games cause children to have a greater chance of interpreting others actions to have hostile intent. This is called hostile attribution bias and has been linked to depression, negative self perception, and peer rejection.[4]

            Another study measured how violent video games affect the actual actions of children. This study took a group of 8^th and 9^th graders and scored their hostility rating and asked them how many fights they has been in the previous year. They then had them play violent video games for a controlled amount of time over the next year. The results showed an increase in physical fights across the board, even for the children who scored low hostility ratings. This shows that violent video games can cause violence in children who don’t even have a natural inclination towards hostility.[5]

            Another study tested college students instead of children. They had a set of students play violent and non violent video games. They then had the students compete against each other in non video game related tasks. The student that won got to blow a loud noise at the loser, and the winner could control how loud and long the sound blast was. They found that the students who had played the violent games made their sound blasts louder and longer than the students who had played the non violent video games.[6] This shows that violent video games have effects on people regardless of age.

                A more detailed study factored in the amount of time playing violent games and how often the children’s parents either limited play time or what games they played. The study used a rating system to calculate time played, parent involvement, violence of games played, trait hostility, and whether violence was preferred in the games they played of six hundred and seven 8^th and 9^th students. They then compared that to frequency of arguments with teachers and physical fights. The results showed that the children who had the least parent involvement and highest ratings of time playing games and amount of violence in the games showed the highest amount of arguments and got into physical fights. The problem was that these children also had the highest trait hostility so one could theorize that they children that were hostile were the ones attracted to violent games and the games had no part of causing the hostility but instead were just played by children that were already hostile. A continuation study was held to test if this was true or not. Even when trait hostility was controlled exposure to violent video games had significant effect on whether or not the students got into physical fights one thing to notice though in parent involvement also had significant influence.[7]

            Another study took two hundred twenty seven college students and had them answer an extensive survey about their interaction with video games and about themselves. They found that the students who played violent games more frequently had more aggressive actions and aggressive personality. This experiment was repeated with different pools of participants and slightly different questions and the same results were found and were even more severe than the affects of violence in television.[8]

            A collection of studies and information was used to come up with conclusions on the overall short-term and long-term affects violent video games have on the player. The short term affects are feelings of aggression and hostile feelings. The long-term effects which result from repeated game play over years include vigilance towards enemies, aggressive action, expectations of aggressive action from others, positive attitude towards violence, and tendencies to use violence to solve problems. They also found that the people who are affected like this from long-term use tend to lose touch with previous social contacts and interact with people who have similar hostile personalities.[9]

            There are numerous other studies that all have similar results. Violent video games seem to have a definite effect on those who play them and as one study concluded age doesn’t matter, they had hostile affects on college students. As technology increases so will the realism of games and from that the violence will only continue to get more harmful. The video game industry isn’t helping either. In 2000 70% of “M” rated games, those appropriate for age 17 and up, were targeted towards an audience younger than 17.[10] Since this information was collected the Advertising Review Council was created to make codes and principles for industry marketers to follow to make sure games are targeted to the audience that is appropriate for their rating. Though this helps there is still the problem that they can not enforce these rules at the retail level due to the First Amendment that protects the writes of the buyer, the ESRB, the overseeing board that rates every games content, have to rely on parents to enforce control over which games their kids play.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

 

Anderson, Craig A, and Karen E. Dill. “Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feeling,                  and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 78.4 (2000): 772-790. 15 Feb. 2006

          http://www.apa.org/journals/features/psp784772.pdf.

 

Gentile, Douglas A, Jennifer Ruh Linder, Paul J. Lynch, and David A. Walsh. “The Effects of Violent Video Game Habits on Adolescent Hostility, Aggressive Behaviors, and School Performance.” Journal of Adolescence. 27 (2004): 5-22. 15 Feb. 2006 http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/dgentile/Gentile_Lynch_Linder_Walsh_2004.pdf.

 

Walsh, David A. “Video Game Violence and Public Policy.” National Institute on Media and the Family. 2001. 24 Jan. 2006 http://culturalpolicy.uchicago.edu/conf2001/papers/walsh.html.