Ed Vitagliano

AFA Journal news editor

July 2004 – The Journal of Adolescence recently published a special issue dedicated to the growing body of scientific research documenting the link between violent video games and a number of negative behaviors in children and adolescents who play them.

“After a half century of research, the empirical evidence regarding the negative effects of violent television, movies and video games is overwhelming,” said psychologists Eric Uhlmann of Yale University and Jane Swanson of the University of Washington, who were one of the teams that published their results.

In all, nine studies were highlighted in the Journal of Adolescence. In a study of eighth- and ninth-graders, for example, Douglas A. Gentile of the National Institute on Media and the Family found detrimental effects from both “[e]xposure to violent video game content and amount of video game play.” 

Those effects included increased hostility, an increased likelihood of being involved in fights, increased frequency of arguments with teachers, and poorer academic performance.

“Adolescents who were more hostile tended to consume more electronic media, played more violent video games, prefer more violent content, and have fewer parental limits on the content of their video games,” Gentile said.

In another article, psychologist Craig Anderson of Iowa State University said that studies indicate that “[e]xposure to violent video games increases aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; increases [physiological] arousal and decreases helping behavior.”

Active violence
Researchers are also beginning to zero in on some of the reasons why the playing of violent video games may be so detrimental.

For example, a study conducted by Jeanne B. Funk from the University of Toledo’s department of psychology hypothesized that it is the uniquely active nature of video gaming that may be the trigger.

“Video game players actually participate in, and to some extent create the video game actions, rather than simply being a content recipient,” Funk said. “In order to succeed at a violent video game, players must identify and then choose violent strategies. Repeated violent choices result in a continuous cycle of reward. Violence is presented as justified, without negative consequences, and fun.”

Funk and her colleagues said that violent video games increase the potential for cognitive, emotional and behavioral “desensitization” of those who play. “Emotional desensitization is evident when there is numbing or blunting of emotional reactions to events which would typically elicit a strong response,” she said. “Cognitive desensitization is evident when the belief that violence is uncommon and unlikely becomes the belief that violence is mundane and inevitable. Emotional and cognitive desensitization to violence decreases the likelihood that violent behavior will either be censored or censured.”

When a gamer becomes desensitized, Funk added, “the process of moral evaluation is disrupted because the individual does not perceive or respond to the cues that are necessary to initiate evaluative processes. As a result, actions may be taken without consideration of their moral implications.”

Uhlmann and Swanson said that playing such violent games begins to “prime aggressive thoughts and feelings, which subsequently prime aggressive action tendencies….”

This creates a pattern of thought and action that is accessed by the youth in real-life circumstances. “Repeated exposure to violent media may make aggressive thoughts and actions chronically accessible, increasing the likelihood that the person will behave in an aggressive manner, especially when provoked or frustrated,” they said.

At the University of Potsdam (Germany), psychologists Barbara Krahe and Ingrid Moller also advanced the idea that such games alter the player’s views of what is right and wrong.

“Significant relationships were found between attraction to violent electronic games and the acceptance of norms condoning physical aggression,” they said.

Like Funk and her associates, Krahe and Moller suggest that violent video games are unique in certain respects, and may be even more adverse than violent television or other media:

“[E]lectronic games may be even more detrimental due to a number of specific features: (a) they provide direct rewards (e.g. points, promotion to the next level of the game) to the players for their aggressive actions in the game, (b) they facilitate the rehearsal of specific behavioral skills (such as hitting a target with a firearm), (c) they facilitate identification with the aggressor by allowing players to choose from a range of characters, and (d) they are characterized by increasing realism in graphics and sound, combined with even more extreme violent action.”

Answering critics
One of the arguments made by those who defend the video game industry – even the more violent games – is that violent video games don’t cause kids to become more hostile, but instead tend to draw more hostile kids to the violent content.

Gentile’s study, however, seemed to rebut that contention. Researchers found, for example, that kids who scored higher on initial tests of hostility, but who played fewer violent video games, actually “had relatively low incidence of physical fights.” On the other hand, youth who initially tested lower on hostility but “who expose themselves to the greatest amount of video game violence … had a higher incidence of physical fights.”

However, the data revealed that the highest incidence of such physical conflict belonged to the group of kids that scored high in hostility and had high levels of exposure to video game violence.

Gentile concluded: “It is possible that the people who are most affected by violent media are those who are most naturally aggressive, thus putting the most vulnerable at the greatest risk for increased aggression.”

Another argument raised by defenders of violent video gaming is that when kids play such games, it releases pent up aggression that might otherwise result in real-life aggression.

Krahe and Moller said this was not what the research has found.” On the contrary, indulging in imaginary aggression has been found to be a potent priming exercise increasing the accessibility of aggressive thoughts and the probability of subsequent aggressive behavior,” they said.

Anderson likened such defensive argumentation to another well-known industry. “Video game industry representatives and their ‘experts’ have criticized the existing violent video game research literature, much as the tobacco industry found ‘experts’ to criticize all research on the possible causal links between smoking and lung cancer,” he said. “And of course, the ‘perfect’ study doesn’t exist in any domain of science, including video game research.”

When it comes to medical and mental health organizations, the video game industry may be no less successful in ignoring the evidence than was Big Tobacco. Gentile’s study noted that the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the American Medical Association all signed on to a statement that said media violence had a “causal connection” to aggressive behavior in young people, even though that connection was complex.

Anderson called the magnitude of the effects of violent video games on those who play them “somewhat alarming.” When measured scientifically, he said, the impact that exposure to violent video games has on aggressive behavior is greater than “the effect of exposure to passive smoke at work and lung cancer, and the effect of calcium intake on bone mass.”

He concluded, “As a society, we have taken massive and expensive steps to educate the public about these smaller medical effects, but almost none to deal with the larger violent video game effects.”  

Wanted: Involved parents
With researchers beginning to build an increasingly airtight case involving the negative effects on kids playing violent video games, parents who are asking for an answer would be wise to find it in the mirror. 

One of the most commonly mentioned potential factors in offsetting the influence of violent video games is the involvement of parents in the gaming habits of their children.

Douglas A. Gentile of the National Institute on Media and the Family said, “Active parental limits in children’s game selection and amount of play could play an important moderating role in the effects of video games on children.”

At the very least, parents should be aware of the ratings for the games their children play, and what those ratings mean.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is charged by the video gaming industry with previewing games for computers and gaming consoles and rating them for content. Companies place the rating in a prominent place on the game package with a description of the rating on the back.

Parents who would like to check the ratings of particular games can call the ESRB at 800-771-3772 or visit the organization’s website at www.esrb.org.