New metastudy shows link between video game violence and aggressive behaviour. Kids and Media encourages parents to be aware of the age limits.

by Sigrun Landro Thomassen & Rune H. Rasmussen

“The visual impressions children encounter plays an important part in shaping and influencing them on the path to adulthood,” says Games Manager Odd Arild Olsen in Kids and Media. “For this reason it is very important that parents have a conscious awareness of the content in the video games their children are playing.”

Increases the chance of aggressive behaviour
A new metastudy, overseen by Craig Anderson, professor of psychology at Iowa State University and the director of Iowa State's Center for the Study of Violence, combining results from 130 research reports on more than 130,000 subjects worldwide, concludes that exposure to violent video games directly causes increased aggressive thoughts and behaviour, and decreased empathy and prosocial behaviour in the youths exposed to them.

"We can now say with utmost confidence that regardless of research method – that is experimental, correlational, or longitudinal – and regardless of the cultures tested in this study [both East and West], you get the same effects: that exposure to violent video games increases the likelihood of aggressive behaviour in both short-term and long-term contexts," Anderson said.

In a statement on the publication of his team's study in the March 2010 issue of the American Psychological Association journal Psychological Bulletin, Anderson adds:

Such exposure also increases aggressive thinking and aggressive affect, and decreases prosocial behaviour...These are not huge effects – not on the order of joining a gang vs. not joining a gang. But these effects are also not trivial in size. It is one risk factor for future aggression and other sort of negative outcomes. And it's a risk factor that's easy for an individual parent to deal with – at least, easier than changing most other known risk factors for aggression and violence, such as poverty or one's genetic structure.

Aggressive by nature
However, some scientists question the conclusions of the report.

“Maybe these people would be aggressive regardless of videogames?” Thomas Wold, Norwegian University Lector in Media Psychology, asks. ”We know that people with aggressive attitudes, to a large extent, choose aggressive media products. Therefore, we can imagine that they would have been aggressive anyway, "says Wold to the Norwegian Public Broadcaster NRK.

Policy reform?
For Craig Anderson, the results could go so far as to call for policy reform: "From a public-policy standpoint, it's time to get off the question of, 'Are there real and serious effects?' That's been answered and answered repeatedly. It's now time to move on to a more constructive question like, 'How do we make it easier for parents – within the limits of culture, society and law – to provide a healthier childhood for their kids?'"

Need for reflection
The conclusion of this study does not surprise Odd Arild Olsen.

“It is very easy to get excited by all the action and everything that is happening on the screen whilst playing video games, and this might easily lead to aggressive behaviour,” says the Games Manager. “The question is how to get an outlet for this aggression.”

Olsen underlines that there are no simple answers to this problem. Nonetheless, he emphasizes the importance of adults reflecting upon what we want our children to learn.

”Which impressions do we want them to be exposed to? Is it OK that violence in video games and films plays such a large part during young people’s adolescence?”

Follow the age limits
Odd Arild Olsen encourages parents to dare to be clear and make some decisions that probably will be unpopular.

“I strongly advise parents to follow the age limits on the video games that their children are playing. There is a reason for these limits, and it is in everyone’s best interest to respect the experts in this area,” says the Games Manager.

Sources:

CNET
Metastudy: Violent video games raise aggression

NRK (in Norwegian) 

The entire report is available here:

Violent Video Game Effects on Aggression, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Eastern and Western Countries: A Meta-Analytic Review