Within the last century with the introduction of the television, the radio, magazines, and graphic novels, entertainment media has become a major part of most people’s lives. Many invest a portion of their time into viewing their favorite movie or reading a magazine or watching the news, and these all have a major effect on how people receive information and what information they receive. Because of the way these different types of mass media affect the spread of information, they are able to influence the way people feel about the information they are receiving and can have an effect on people’s minds. Throughout history the different types of entertainment media- movies, television shows, and graphic novels- have had violence introduced to them and in all circumstances it has caused controversy. People believed then that by being involved with violent entertainment media by watching a violent movie or reading a violent comic book would cause violence in real life and today the violent entertainment media involved in this controversy is the violent video game.
Video games came about in the 1940s when simple chess playing computers were invented and over the next decades they evolved into home entertainment systems with numerous games able to be played on them. However, as violent and graphic games like Mortal Kombat and Doom were released in the early 1990s, controversy began to arise around video games and the effects they may have on the people playing them. In response to this, an organization called the Entertainment Software Rating Board, or ESRB, was founded in 1994 to rate video games into different categories based on content and limit who could buy which games. This was intended to limit the exposure of violence and inappropriate themes to young adults and children. However, with continued releases of increasingly graphic and violent video games from franchises such as Call of Duty and Battlefield that reward players for killing other humans in war, there is still controversy surrounding these games. Because of this controversy the games are reported to be a danger by many major news outlets and are considered a bad influence that causes crime by many people.
Contrary to the belief of many people and news outlets, there is sufficient evidence to prove that violent video games do not, in fact, cause violent behavior that leads to crime in young adults. Violent video games have been considered the cause of real world violence that leads to many of the crimes committed annually because they have been proven in many experiments to cause aggressive and violent behavior. However, these experiments tested for short term results only and there is not currently any way to test for aggressive and violent behavior caused by video games in a long term scale, so there is no way to prove that the games are the cause of the crimes. In more recent studies it has even been found that there is no link at all between the violence in games and aggressive feelings and behavior in real life, even in young adults with mental conditions, and can actually reduce violent urges. Finally, labs have recently been conducted comparing the relationship between the sale and playtime of violent video games and crimes committed and have found that as more games have been bought and played, crime rates have decreased. Violent video games do not cause young adults to commit violent crimes because studies proving they cause violent behavior are inaccurate, more recent studies have found they do not cause aggression and can actually reduce it, and by comparing numbers it has been discovered that less crimes are committed as more violent games are sold.
On the other hand, in the past few decades as violent video games have been involved in controversy and received attention, countless experiments have been conducted in which scientists have attempted to find a link between playing of violent video games and an increase in real world violent behavior. The majority of these tests found that by playing violent video games many participants experienced an increase in short term aggressive and antisocial behavior. Also, it has often been found that the players of violent video games seem to be temporarily desensitized to the consequences of violent or unkind actions they perform. When Craig Anderson, a professor of psychology at the University of Iowa was asked about the results of a test that found the games do cause aggressive behavior, he said, “They also reward players for being alert to hostile intentions and for using aggressive behavior to solve conflicts. Practicing such aggressive thinking in these games improves the ability of the players to think aggressively. In turn, this habitual aggressive thinking increases their aggressiveness in real life” (Gentile). The majority of the tests conducted to find the effects of violent video games on the mind have mostly discovered short term increase in aggression that could potentially lead to a long term increase in violent behavior.
The results of these labs have allowed arguments that suggest that violent video games do, in fact, cause young adults at the high school and college age to commit violent crimes. For example some argue that these games lead to crimes because of they have been linked to aggressive behavior and cause people to “practice being vigilant for enemies, practice thinking that it’s acceptable to respond aggressively to provocation, and practice becoming desensitized to the consequences of violence” (Gentile). Additionally, based on a standard model the aggression people show after playing violent video games is, on average, more dangerous and more likely to lead to crime than those who have not played the games. Furthermore, this aggression found in people after playing violent video games has a larger effect on younger adult because they are often more easily influenced by the games majority of people who play them are in this age group. Lastly, some argue that violent video games are a source of violent crime from young adults because infamous violent crimes such as the Arora movie theater massacre and the Columbine High School massacre were committed by young adults who played violent video games. Essentially, many argue that violent video games are to blame for violent crimes because of the results of countless lab’s findings that they cause aggression and violence and because many crimes that have received a massive amount of attention from the media involved people who play the games.
However, these arguments can be disproven because the foundation they are based upon, the tests that found that violent video games and aggression are directly correlated are often inaccurate. The majority of these experiments use small numbers of participants, often just over one hundred, which is not a large enough sample to represent the entire population of young adults. Furthermore, there are many variables not taken into account by the majority of the labs, such as the differing backgrounds of the participants, the differing amounts of exposure to violent video games or other media, and the personalities of those tested. Additionally, a recent study that tested the effect of games on behavior in college students found that “The test on the collapsed data found no difference in pro-social behavior between Violence-Present games and the Violence-Absent games” (Tear and Nielsen), as subjects who played violent video games acted no less antisocial than those who played nonviolent games. This shows that the tests of the effects of violent video games on behavior have varying results and are not always accurate, and because of this inaccuracy it cannot be used as proof to back arguments based off the idea that aggression is linked to the games. In addition to their inaccuracy, the tests that have found a direct correlation between violent games and real world hostility only show results in the short term.
According to psychologist Christopher Barlett and several other psychologists performing these types of tests, “A dose of violent gaming makes people act a little more rudely than they would otherwise, at least for a few minutes after playing. It is far harder to determine whether cumulative exposure leads to real-world hostility over the long term” (Carey). At this point in time, the results of experiments testing the behavioral effects of violent video games can determine how the content of a game affects a person for only a short period of a time after playing it. Because it is impossible to discern whether or not violent video games have an effect on the mind for a long period of time, “it is not at all clear whether, over longer periods, such a habit increases the likelihood that a person will commit a violent crime, like murder, rape, or assault” (Carey). Currently it is unable to be determined if violent behavior caused by playing violent games can translate to long term violence and then crime, it cannot be argued that the short term aggression caused by playing the games can cause young adults to commit crimes.
On the contrary, a recent study, similar to those conducted to find a basic link between hostility and violent video games, was performed on young adults considered “high risk” and found results on a more long term scale. “In the new study, Drs. Christopher Ferguson and Cheryl Olson discovered violent video games such as ‘Mortal Kombat,’ ‘Halo’ and ‘Grand Theft Auto’ did not cause high-risk teens to become aggressive bullies or delinquents” (Nauert). A high risk young adult is one with attention deficit disorder, depression, or another mental condition that makes them more likely than those without conditions to be more aggressive or commit crimes. The doctors conducting the study also found that “playing the video games actually had a very slight calming effect on youths with attention deficit disorder, depression, or another mental condition that makes them more likely than those without conditions to be more aggressive or commit crimes. The doctors conducting the study also found that “playing the video games actually had a very slight calming effect on youths with attention deficit symptoms — and helped to reduce aggressive and bullying behavior” (Nauert), and this reduction of aggressive and belligerent behavior over the months after playing the violent video games shows that the games actually lessen the chances of a high risk young adult committing a crime. The fact that the young adults considered most easily influenced by violent video games and most likely to commit a crime because of this are actually calmed and made less violent because of the games strongly supports the statement that violent video games are not a cause of crimes committed by young adults.
Additionally, another recent study has found that it is not the violent content that causes aggression after playing a game, but rather the difficult game mechanics that anger the player. Researchers at Oxford University and the University of Rochester conducted a study in which they had one group of participants play the first person shooter game Half-Life, another group play an extremely violent version of Half-Life, another group play the block stacking game Tetris, and a final group play a tremendously difficult version of Tetris and then tested aggression by having subjects assign an amount of time for another person to keep their hand in a painfully cold bucket of water. They found no difference in aggression levels between those who played the normal version of Half-Life and those who played the exceptionally violent version, but with the nonviolent game Tetris, “people who had played the harder version of the game recommended, on average, 7 seconds more pain for their successors than those who had played the normal version” (Bennett). The researchers were able to conclude that difficult mechanics that make a player feel incompetent or cheated are a cause of aggression, not violent content and used this to explain that violent content in online multiplayer games does not cause aggression, but being outplayed and feeling unskilled is. Because difficulty and not violence was found to be a cause of hostility, this study helps to give foundation to the assertion that violent video games do not cause crime because it proves that the violence in the games is not even a cause of aggression in short term.
Finally, a very detailed lab conducted in 2011 was able to compare numbers and find that increases in the sales and popularity of violent video games results in a decrease in crime. Psychologists A. Scott Cunningham, Benjamin Engelstätter, and Michael R. Ward conducted a lab in which they used ESRB ratings, sales figures, online reviews, and crime reports from the National Incident Based Reporting System to compare the popularity and sales of violent video games to crime rates. In this lab, all eliminable variables including geographical location, age, and even weather were taken into account in order to make the numbers as accurate as possible. After comparing the numbers, the researchers were able to conclude saying, “our estimated violent video game-to-violent crime elasticity… would predict almost 0.3% fewer violent crimes per year due to violent video game sales. Nationwide, this would translate to about 10 fewer violent crimes committed per day” (Cunningham, Ward, and Engelstätter). This lab found that as violent video games increase in sales and become more popular, both violent and nonviolent crime rates decrease, and that nonviolent video games have no effect on crime. These results contradict the idea that violent video games cause young adults to commit crimes and actually proves the opposite, that playing violent video games makes a young adult less like to commit a crime.
All the evidence presented backs the claim that the playing of violent video games in no way leads to young adults committing crimes. The tests conducted in the past that found that the games lead to increased aggression are unable to determine the negative behavioral effects over long periods of time, and because they do not take most variables into account and more recent studies have found no correlation between the games and aggression, these results cannot even be considered accurate in the short term. Furthermore, it has been discovered that difficulty in games causes aggression, not extreme violent content, and this violent content does not even negatively affect young adults considered to be high risk. Finally, after comparing very detailed numbers and eliminating all variable that could cause problems, researchers discovered that the increased sale and popularity of violent video games has resulted in a decrease in crime, causing approximately ten less crimes per day. The inaccuracy of labs linking violent video games to real world violence makes them unable to support claims that the games lead to crimes and the results of more recent studies proving that video games do not cause violent behavior and actually reduce crime help to prove that violent video games do not make young adults commit crimes.
This is significant because it shows that the controversy surrounding violent media like graphic movies, comic books, and video games thought to be negative influences that could lead to violence and crime is pointless. As the media has spread information and influenced how people think in recent history, it has been believed to be a hazard and many have thought it best to limit exposure to violent media to stop it from causing problems. Through various studies it has been proven that violent media, specifically violent video games, actually do not have an effect on behavior and decrease the likelihood that a young adult, or any person, will commit a crime. This defies the common thought that violent media is harmful to society and shows that it is actually beneficial, as an increased popularity and sale of violent media has led to a decrease in crime rates and could continue to do so to a further extent in the future. Fundamentally, violent media, more explicitly violent video games, are an important benefactor in society that help to reduce crime and violence and do not cause young adults to commit crimes.
– Jake Brannon
Jake Brannon attends Lausanne Collegiate School
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