Violent video games: More playing time equals more aggression

[Celebration]

Researchers found that people who played a violent video game for three consecutive days showed increases in aggressive behavior and hostile expectations each day they played. Meanwhile, those who played nonviolent games showed no meaningful changes in aggression or hostile expectations over that period.

Although other experimental studies have shown that a single session of playing a violent video game increased short-term aggression, this is the first to show longer-term effects, said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University.

"It's important to know the long-term causal effects of violent video games, because so many young people regularly play these games," Bushman said.

"Playing video games could be compared to smoking cigarettes. A single cigarette won't cause lung cancer, but smoking over weeks or months or years greatly increases the risk. In the same way, repeated exposure to violent video games may have a cumulative effect on aggression."

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-violent-video-games-equals-aggression.html#jCp

[AnotherMcIntosh]

1. Thanks for posting.

[Bjorn Against]

2. What kind of aggressive behavior did they exhibit?

I get the hostile expectations, but expecting someone else to react with violence is not the same as engaging in agressive behavior themselves. Pressing a button to make a noise during a game is not any sort of suggestion that people are aggressive either. I have not ever seen any clear link between violence and games, in fact the statistics have shown crime dropping among populations who play video games. I am certainly not suggesting that video games caused the drop in crime, but the data certainly doesn't show games being a real factor in causing acts of violence either.

[ZM90]

3. +1000 I am tired of video games being blamed for the horrific violence going on in this country. n/t

[wiredshut]

4. Joe Camel smoking

A static cartoon image of a smoking camel, it was concluded, had a negative effective on children. And with that, Joe Camel was eliminated. You can cite all the claims you like, but societal violence has been on the rise since video games took on a realistic, violent nature. It's called de-sensitising. There's also an expresion of "living out one's fantasy". No, violent games will not affect everyone. That's a lousy arguement to allow these negative effects to those who are mentally irregular. You should start wondering why the negativity of violence entertains you?

[Bjorn Against]

5. First of all games are not the same thing as smoking

Second your claim that violence has been on the rise since video games became popular is absolutely false, in fact the opposite is true and crime dropped as games became more popular. When it comes to what entertains me it is not too different from what entertains most Americans, television is often as violent as games yet CSI never gets blamed for violence not because it is less violent but because it has a bigger fan base. People go after games because they don't understand games.