Video Games Do Not Cause Violent Behavior

It has been argued that exposure to violent media can negatively affect an individual's behavior. This includes violence in movies, comic books, and video games. As many as 97% of US kids age 12-17 play video games, contributing to the $21.53 billion domestic video game industry. More than half of the 50 top-selling video games contain violence. Violent video games have been blamed for school shootings, increases in bullying, and violence towards women. Critics argue that these games desensitize players to violence, reward players for simulating violence, and teach children that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflicts. However, researchers at the University of New York have found no evidence to such claim. They performed a series

There is no scientific, consensus-backed research supporting the idea that playing video games makes a person more violent. However, this misguided theory prevails. After a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, left 17 people dead on February 14th, a handful of politicians accused video games for corrupting young minds and inciting violent behavior. Days later, President Donald Trump said during a meeting about safety in schools, "I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts. In a study consisting of 194 children from the Netherlands, children and parents were observed of their gaming habits, violent gaming, and outcomes related to aggression. THe children were all around the age of 9 for the assessment. Results indicated that exposure to ‘violent’ video games at age 9 was not predictive of aggression or reduced prosocial behaviors one year later. Overall gaming, likewise, was unrelated to most mental health issues including attention problems or reduced social functioning, or total mental health difficulties. However, gaming was slightly related to increased mood symptoms like depression and anxiety, although the relationship was a small

As far back as 2011, the US Supreme Court ruled that research did not find a clear connection between violent video games and aggressive behavior.” You might wonder why so many policymakers inclined to blame violent video games for violence? There are two main reasons. The first is the psychological research community's efforts to market itself as strictly scientific. This led to a replication crisis instead, with researchers often unable to repeat the results of their studies. Now, psychology researchers are reassessing their analyses of a wide range of issues, not just violent video games, but implicit racism, power poses and