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Playing Violent Video Games Leads to Violent Actions, Claims Study

by Caleb Johnson on March 3, 2010 at 06:50 AM


Studies linking violence and video games are a dime a dozen, but, according to The Washington Post, Iowa State University psychologist Craig Anderson claims that playing violent games definitively leads to violent thought and action. Set to be published in the American Psychological Association's (APA) March journal, his research claims that data from previous studies, of 130,000 people total, demonstrates that violent games lead to violent behavior no matter the culture, age or sex of a person. Anderson's findings contradict previous studies on the subject, which, he claims, are biased due to how the subjects were selected. In fact, Anderson writes that people who are exposed to violent games tend to think and act more aggressively. In other words, afternoons spent rampaging through the streets of 'Grand Theft Auto' could be more detrimental to the psyche than some experts have thought.

Of course, the Texas A&M researchers whose study is the target of Anderson's report claim his argument is weak at best. Christopher Ferguson and John Kilburn say Anderson used some selection bias of his own, and they also note that violent crime in developed nations has decreased as video game popularity has increased. [From: The Washington Post]

Tags: data, research, study, top, trends, video games, videogames, violence, Violence in Video Games, ViolenceInVideoGames

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