Live data from Hacker News

Ten year study: No link between violent video games and aggressive behavior

gamesage.net

11–20 of 593 posts

Re: Ten year study: No link between violent video games and aggressive behavior

#11

Can we do a study on a link between video games and ADHD or dopamine deficiency? https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/childhood-adhd/adhd-and-video...

This is entirely my own experience but the friends I had in high school/university always clocked in way more hours in WoW than I could doing repetitive tasks such as reputation grinding, crafting, dailies, raiding etc. I always wondered if it was something to do with ADHD or possibly the medications they took. The latter seems less likely as they played even more when they were off their meds.

Re: Ten year study: No link between violent video games and aggressive behavior

#12
Perhaps in the case of some individuals, there may even be a negative link: finding a non-destructive outlet for violent tendencies. I recall seeing a recent article (the title and site escapes me) that posits something similar with regards to the rise of internet pornography and a seeming reduction in serial killings.

Re: Ten year study: No link between violent video games and aggressive behavior

#13
My mother specialized in early childhood learning and developmental psychology. She never once blinked when my brother and I played Doom or Wolfenstein, some of the most violent games of their times. We were allowed to play with toy guns and listen to whatever music we wanted including heavy metal (which my father despised.)

I asked her about this later in life and her answer was and she laughingly told me "I knew you two were well aware of the fact that it was a fantasy. I never saw it influence any unhealthy behaviour. Plus its a good aggression outlet for young boys."

Re: Ten year study: No link between violent video games and aggressive behavior

#14
Somewhat Tangential: Without any instruction my 2 and 4 year olds know how to turn things into weapons to beat each other with. Like puppies they seem to be testing limits to rough play.

What surprised me is what happened when I didn't intervene: a few times the older one completely dominated and got his way. But more often than not the older one displayed empathy and tried to apologize and give kisses and give the younger one additional toys.

Maybe this is an unoriginal idea but it bears repeating: I think kids have more ability to self regulate than we typically treat them as having.

Re: Ten year study: No link between violent video games and aggressive behavior

#18

Somewhat Tangential: Without any instruction my 2 and 4 year olds know how to turn things into weapons to beat each other with. Like puppies they seem to be testing limits to rough play. What surprised me is what happened when I didn't intervene: a few times the older one completely dominated and got his way. But more often than not the older one displayed empathy and tried to apologize and give kisses and give the y…

That's why it's so important to let them play. They end up figuring out a lot of important things by themselves that it would be almost impossible otherwise.

Re: Ten year study: No link between violent video games and aggressive behavior

#20
Maybe I'm having a brainfart, but the abstract seems illogical to me. Can someone help me understand how

> [the] group with low initial violence “was no higher [don't they mean no lower??] in aggressive behavior than the high initial violence group at the final time point.”

leads to their conclusion

> adolescents who played a high-level of violent video games at an early age did not show more aggressive behavior later in life than those who played fewer to no hours of violent video games at an early age.

(words in square brackets added)

Post reply on HN