Do Video Games Make Youths Violent?
A New Study Says So
By Tony Kontzer Courtesy of InformationWeek
August 22, 2005

The American Psychological Association is calling for reduced violence in video games and youth-oriented interactive media after reviewing research indicating that there's a link between video games and violent behavior.

The research, conducted at Saint Leo University near Tampa, Fla., indicates that violent games have short-term effects on those who play them. Kevin Kieffer, assistant professor of psychology, and student Jessica Nicoll extracted patterns and themes from 20 years of studies, but stopped short of aggregating the statistics from those studies, which Kieffer says would have yielded more complete and authoritative findings. The pair presented their research last week at an annual gathering of the American Psychological Association, prompting a resolution from the association.

Kieffer says the research points to numerous gaps that can be filled with further studies on the topic. Among the areas of study he suggests is attempting to determine whether those who play violent games are predisposed to violent behavior to begin with. "I think we really have to get to describing the individuals who are playing the games and see if they're any different from the population," he says. Kieffer also says that a truly complete study would involve research from institutions in multiple geographies to achieve demographic balance.

The research cites many examples of violent behavior egged on by video games. Findings over the past 20 years include a tendency of 8th and 9th graders to be more hostile, more argumentative with authority, and more likely to be involved in physical altercations with other students. One study also found evidence of a link between violent games and poor academic performance.

Not surprisingly, the research verified that boys spend a lot more time playing violent games than girls. Female characters often are portrayed in subordinate roles, which may provide less incentive for girls to play. However, those girls who do play violent video games are more likely to play aggressively afterward, Kieffer and Nicoll found.

What Can Parents Do?

Based on Kieffer's and Nicoll's findings, the APA drafted a resolution recommending a number of steps to reduce violence in video games. They include teaching media literacy to children to develop their ability to critically evaluate what's presented to them; encouraging video game makers to recognize the link between violent game images and resulting behaviors, and the potential for games to have more influence on youths than violent movies and television programs; and developing a rating system that more accurately reflects the content in video games.

Kieffer suggests that parents also should take responsibility for the content their kids are being exposed to--especially with video games, which parents often know little about. But he's also careful to point out that any concrete action should be predicated upon additional research. "I'm thinking more from a preventative standpoint," he says. "If there's a segment of the population that's being damaged by a product, preventing that damage would be important. I don't think we know that at this point."

Information Week Follow-Up

In response to the above story, people were split over whether children became more aggressive or anti-social as a result of playing video games. But there was near solidarity against government funding of more studies. Most of the writers also blamed parents, if children played games too violent for their age, arguing that they were responsible for controlling what their kids did, and more government regulations wouldn't help...

Maybe serial killers aren't manufactured from this process, but I think it teaches and then reinforces a certain groove of thought that may become a reaction in an emotional moment. Good kids may end up with deadly reactions under the wrong circumstances.
-- Terry Zuehlke

How could anyone not understand that exposing children (or anyone for that matter) to the level of graphic violence depicted in some video games is harmful? ... As for requesting that the federal government initiate another costly study to validate what commonsense has already told us is truth is ludicrous. -- Barry T. Hill

When I was in Europe with my wife, I saw an American movie on the tube. All the nudity that gets cut on American TV was shown and all the violence that gets shown on American TV was cut out. Maybe they're onto something.
-- Chris Myers, Providence, R.I.

I'm a gamer but I play adventure games rather than the shooters or action-oriented offerings. I have noticed that my post-game-playing perception of what's going on around me is markedly different after a couple of hours in front of the screen. I expect things in real life to behave as they do in the game and it takes several minutes (as long as ten minutes) for my perception to readjust to the "illogics" of the real world. It's kinda like roller-skating. After you've been on skates for a few hours, it takes your body and your senses some time to get used to walking again.
-- Pat C. Ames, PhD, South Bend, Ind.

We need to start placing blame where it belongs...Good parents do not allow kids to play games rated MA17. Parents teach behavior, not video games.
-- Tommy D. Dorsey Jr.

Yes, I think more studies, very preferably controlled ones (in the scientific sense), need to be made on the effects of violent games on children, but not ones sponsored by government. Government studies tend toward finding either or both of two things: (1) The need for further government-funded programs to solve the problems they were set up to study; (2) the need for further studies of the same sort.
-- Kenneth H. Fleischer, Los Angeles

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