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Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

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Re: Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

#31

Post by andybak »

Cowen wrote: post #4

I have a bias here. I love video games and I've never truly believed they have serious detrimental effects on mental health. I'm also not an expert of psychology, but I know of at least two psychologists that are studying this and coming to the conclusion that video games have positive results. http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_bavelier_your_brain_on_video... http://psych.utoronto.ca/users/spence/Research_Games.html An…

Precisely. I'm not sure how you could design an experiment to do so but you'd need further proof that these tests do correlate with 'aggression' (however you choose to define THAT). It wouldn't be hard to come up with alternative explanations of what those tests measured.

So they've just proved a correlation between video games and two specific tests of... something...

Re: Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

#32

Post by otakucode »

I really hate studies like this. Their methodology was absolutely terrible, and absolutely does not support the conclusions they drew.

What they have shown is that exposure to violent fiction results in the production of more violent fiction, and nothing else. The researchers, like so many others, made the fundamental mistake of conflating fiction and reality. Fiction, however, is not reality. And naming violent acts to be incuded in a fictional story is not equivalent in any significant way with actual violence.

Re: Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

#33

Post by diminoten »

I'm not sure why this is surprising to anyone - it fits together perfectly well with the general concept of priming. Experiencing a higher level of an emotion over a period of time from any source may very well lead to these same results.

I would expect these results for any consistent sustained exposure to any interactive activity, not just agression related.

The next experiment should substitute video gaming with say, sustained OKC or LinkedIn activity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priming_(psychology)

Re: Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

#34

Post by Tipzntrix »

otakucode wrote: post #32

I really hate studies like this. Their methodology was absolutely terrible, and absolutely does not support the conclusions they drew. What they have shown is that exposure to violent fiction results in the production of more violent fiction, and nothing else. The researchers, like so many others, made the fundamental mistake of conflating fiction and reality. Fiction, however, is not reality. And naming violent acts…

However, blasting unseen opponents' ears with louder and longer unpleasant noise is reality.

Re: Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

#35

Post by tibbon »

A few questions (which are potentially issues) for this study:

- Doesn't this essentially test short-term reaction to a stimulus? This study doesn't simulate effects after doing this behavior for months, but 3 days. There's always the chance of a dropoff in effect here

- Would one potential factor here be that the 'violent' games were very immediate twitch-based? And the non-violent games were all essentially racing? Racing games you're penalized frequently for harsh and sharp reactions, and rewarded for getting a smooth flow going and discipline (or at least this is how I play Gran Turismo). In FPS games, you're rewarded for a short, fast and harsh reaction to input stimulus.

- I would be interested to see the comparison of these games and violent/non-violent non-interactive things (movies).

- While it might have blown the 'cover' of the experiment, would it be possible to give the testers some other written test on moral-based decision making before/after?

Re: Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

#36

Post by dllthomas »

Shorel wrote: post #26

> Students in the study then participated in a competitive reaction time task, which is used to measure aggression. Ok, if you have fast reflexes you are a violent person now? This is extremely misleading.

My initial reaction was similar, but after the elaboration it's just poor writing.

The "competitive reaction time task" had them competing against no-one, and told they won about half the games. During play, they could decide how much to punish the opponent (through controlling the volume of some unpleasant noises) when the opponent lost.

So, they assume that choosing to inflict more unpleasantness on your opponent when it doesn't make a difference in game or out means you're a more violent person. That doesn't seem perfect, necessarily, but it's clearly a much better measurement than "if you have fast reflexes you are a violent person".

Re: Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

#37

Post by mc32 »

otakucode wrote: post #32

I really hate studies like this. Their methodology was absolutely terrible, and absolutely does not support the conclusions they drew. What they have shown is that exposure to violent fiction results in the production of more violent fiction, and nothing else. The researchers, like so many others, made the fundamental mistake of conflating fiction and reality. Fiction, however, is not reality. And naming violent acts…

Since it's fiction, would it be ok if all villains were one specific ethnicity throughout all video games which had people in them?

Would it be ok if all the 'good people' were another entirely different ethnicity?

Could we project that to movies and TV shows as well? Would under-representing minorities in TV/movies be okay because it's fiction (barring reality shows, sports and news)?

I think the issue is more nuanced than "it's fiction, therefore it has no impact on real life". What the connection is and how much the influence is, I don't know. But I don't think one can say there is no bleeding through whatsoever.

Re: Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

#38

Post by otakucode »

Cowen wrote: post #4

I have a bias here. I love video games and I've never truly believed they have serious detrimental effects on mental health. I'm also not an expert of psychology, but I know of at least two psychologists that are studying this and coming to the conclusion that video games have positive results. http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_bavelier_your_brain_on_video... http://psych.utoronto.ca/users/spence/Research_Games.html An…

It is really amazing how many psychology studies that try to address the effects of media end up making the mistake that they equate fiction and reality as the same thing. They show people violent videos, and immediately start talking about "witnessing violence" in order to convince people that the difference between real violence and violent imagery is irrelevant. In this study, they equate presenting violent concepts for inclusion in fiction as being indistinguishable from actual aggressive action.

A great deal of the social discussion surrounding violent media is poisoned by people who insist on denying that there is a difference between fiction and reality, or, more often, using words with two radically different meanings. They say something like "children have sex with hookers and then run over them, murdering them" in their description of a videogame. They are not claiming, of course, that the players physically did have sex or murder anyone, but they realy ENTIRELY upon you assigning the same negative connotations to the actions as you would to the real physical actions. If you stop and ask why murder is wrong when it involves two fictional characters, you either quickly find out that it simply isn't, or that the person speaking has no capacity to define WHY murder is wrong in the first place and so bases their entire worldview on seeing words like "murder" as a quasi-mystical totem portending danger.

Re: Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

#39

Post by JoeAltmaier »

mc32 wrote: post #37
otakucode wrote: post #32

I really hate studies like this. Their methodology was absolutely terrible, and absolutely does not support the conclusions they drew. What they have shown is that exposure to violent fiction results in the production of more violent fiction, and nothing else. The researchers, like so many others, made the fundamental mistake of conflating fiction and reality. Fiction, however, is not reality. And naming violent acts…

Since it's fiction, would it be ok if all villains were one specific ethnicity throughout all video games which had people in them? Would it be ok if all the 'good people' were another entirely different ethnicity? Could we project that to movies and TV shows as well? Would under-representing minorities in TV/movies be okay because it's fiction (barring reality shows, sports and news)? I think the issue is more nuanc…

It would not be 'ok'. But it also might not change behavior or attitudes, that's speculation.

Re: Violent Video Games: More Playing Time Equals More Aggression

#40

Post by Tipzntrix »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #29
Cowen wrote: post #4

I have a bias here. I love video games and I've never truly believed they have serious detrimental effects on mental health. I'm also not an expert of psychology, but I know of at least two psychologists that are studying this and coming to the conclusion that video games have positive results. http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_bavelier_your_brain_on_video... http://psych.utoronto.ca/users/spence/Research_Games.html An…

> But after three days, certainly these students had also been given their fair share of harsh sounds, and at that point it's not crazy to think that they were just "playing the game." "In actuality, there was no opponent and the participants were told they won about half the trials.)" I.e. no one received harsh sounds.

They also said that the participant won half the trials. How could the experimenters fool the subjects about the game if they didn't get any harsh sounds back?
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