Many of the most popular video games, such as “Call of Duty” and “Grand Theft Auto,” are violent; however, as video game technology is relatively new, there are fewer empirical studies of video game violence than other forms of media violence. Still, several meta-analytic reviews have reported negative effects of exposure to violence in video games.
A 2010 review by psychologist Craig A. Anderson and others concluded that “the evidence strongly suggests that exposure to violent video games is a causal risk factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, and aggressive affect and for decreased empathy and prosocial behavior.” Anderson’s earlier research showed that playing violent video games can increase a person's aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior both in laboratory settings and in daily life. "One major conclusion from this and other research on violent entertainment media is that content matters," says Anderson.
Thanks, real data.
Needs more recent research --- 8 years ago most games were not NEARLY as violent or violence directed at people as are available now. Games were more cartoony -- I think this is a recent issue. PUBG, in which people shoot each other's avatars instead of pre-programmed NPCs (non-playing characters) only came out last year, for instance.
Certainly violent games (movies, books) increase violent moods and thoughts! I agree. But --- does that matter? Does someone go out and shoot up the school with Dad's AR-15 because he just played PUBG and got killed 16 times in a row? (You only win one in a hundred times, so such frustration is the norm, they say ----- I've never won so I'm pretty far behind, if that's true. Got close several times.) I want to see how these game feelings translate to real life violence, if they do. Mostly people just rage quit, in my experience. And go do something else, non-violent. I usually make supper.
Like I told G.T., I didn't spend a lot of time on it. I have read studies before but I realized I was going to find as many that say No as say Yes. There certainly is a body of research out there, if you are interested. I believe it is a larger issue, of tacit approval of gun violence by using it as entertainment which feeds a
culture that has become increasingly violent.
Based on violent crime decreasing?
I took the time out to GIVE YOU THE DATA....
I knew you'd say that. I heard you. I am comparing our culture today to what I remember as a kid and what other posters here remember about bringing their guns to school for rifle practice after school and such. A school shooting was completely undreamed of. A mass shooting was unheard of until the UT Austin Clock Tower shooting in 1966. Gunned down a flock of student nurses, if I remember right. It was 18 years until the next one, at a McDonalds in California. Then they start happening with more regularity, every couple of years. Now they're happening every year or more than once a year. This year will probably be a red letter year, considering we've already had two and it's not even June yet.
You're right that the homicide rate now is comparable to when I started grade school. Where, then, are these mass shootings coming from? That is not a figment of my imagination. And they were not around in 1960.
It's not a figment of your imagination - the error, so to speak, in your reasoning is that you're using anecdotes and deciding that culture as a whole behaves this way.
Even if there were 100 school shootings a year, our culture does not "behave this way," that's still a very OUTLIER statistic from the norm.
If you didn't impose anecdotes on everyone, i.e. fallacy of over-generalization, you'd be able to see the clearer picture.
School shootings up - overall homicide down = less violent, per capita, as a culture.
