A range of legal, policy and moral issues relating to video games and their possible connection with real-world violence continue to be debated. Few questions in social science are ever definitively “settled,” but the cumulative evidence found in academic studies can make one side of the argument significantly more persuasive. Much can depend on the design of experiments and the precise framing of research questions, however. A prominent example of contested academic terrain is the field of violent video game research, which journalists sometimes find themselves examining and grappling with when reporting on the roots of violent acts and behaviors.
The connection with real-world violence may seem obvious and, at the anecdotal level, the news seems to periodically furnish fresh evidence. For example, the man who killed 77 people in Norway in 2011 testified that he prepared for the assault by playing the first-person shooter video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Extensive research has linked violent video games and aggressive behavior, with outcomes moderated only slightly when cultural biases and gender are taken into consideration. At the same time, numerous well-designed studies have found no effect or even a decrease in violent crime in response to violent video games.
Research on how scientific knowledge has been reflected in the media suggests that there have been patterns at work in the press over the past 30 years. A 2013 study in the Journal of Communication suggests that, in the past, media consistently connected real-world violence to violent entertainment and media, but beginning in 2000 the stance became more neutral in tone:
Rather than sensationalizing a moral panic about media violence, the news media are suggesting significant ambiguity exists within the research…. [T]he overall trend in article tone appears to be toward even less conclusiveness, with articles from the last five years presenting a less convincing stance than any five-year period since the early 1980s. We argue that a possible explanation for the shift in tone is the coverage of video games. We found fewer stories about video games that suggest a link exists and more that take a neutral tone relative to stories about television.
The authors of that study, from Indiana University and the University of Utah, state that this is not necessarily an accurate reflection of trends in research studies. “Collectively, this body of work shows a consistent pattern: Exposure to media violence increases the risk of subsequent aggression,” they write. “Meta-analyses of the research generally have supported this conclusion.” Also worth noting is that, in general, female reporters are more likely to highlight a strong connection between media and real-world violence than their male counterparts, the researchers find.
Examples of recent studies that support this connection to violence — the prevailing theory and the one most cited in public discourse — are detailed below, along with a wide variety of counterexamples. Journalists would be well-served to pay attention to the nuances of the arguments — and the framing of the research questions. Studies on both “sides” often look at slightly different aspects of the overall question.
“Does Media Violence Predict Societal Violence? It Depends on What You Look at and When”
Ferguson, Christopher J. Journal of Communications, February 2015, Vol. 65, Issue 1, E1–E22. doi: 10.1111/jcom.12129.
Abstract: “This article presents two studies of the association of media violence rateswith societal violence rates. In the first study, movie violence and homicide rates are examined across the 20th century and into the 21st (1920–2005).Throughout the mid-20th century small-to-moderate correlational relationships can be observed between movie violence and homicide rates in the United States. This trend reversed in the early and latter 20th century, with movie violence rates inversely related to homicide rates. In the second study, videogame violence consumption is examinedagainst youth violence rates in the previous two decades.Video game consumption is associated with a decline in youth violence rates. Results suggest that societal consumption of media violence is not predictive of increased societal violence rates.”
“Violent Video Games, Delinquency and Youth Violence: New Evidence”
DeLisi, Matt; Vaughn, Michael G.; Gentile, Douglas A.; Anderson, Craig A.; Shook, Jeffrey J. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, April 2013, Vol. 11, No. 2. doi: 10.1177/1541204012460874.
“Based on a data from a sample of institutionalized juvenile delinquents, behavioral and attitudinal measures relating to violent video game playing were associated with a composite measure of delinquency and a more specific measure of violent delinquency after controlling for the effects of screen time, years playing video games, age, sex, race, delinquency history and psychopathic personality traits. Violent video games are associated with antisociality even in a clinical sample, and these effects withstand the robust influences of multiple correlates of juvenile delinquency and youth violence most notably psychopathy.”
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