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

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

#381

Post by bondarchuk »

afandian wrote: post #117

I'm one of those people who is entirely bemused by violent videogames and films (I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be bemused by my pastimes too). I'm not trying to argue to stop anyone doing it, but I would really like to understand it better. Many video games are essentially simulators of things that we're prevented from doing in reality, because of the laws of nature or society. Whether that's dropping…

The other replies barely hint at this, perhaps because you don't really notice something when it's so pervasive, but the answer is obviously American puritanism.

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

#382

Post by lr4444lr »

yazboo wrote: post #80

I have noticed that many social science articles posted on Hacker News bring out critical comments about study design, doubts about the strength of the study's conclusions, that kind of thing. This submission, on the other hand, is a link to some kind of gaming news website, which links to an abstract for an article in a Cyberpsychology (?) journal which costs $60 to access, and there is widespread and uncritical agr…

You are not wrong generally about potential HN bias, but to be fair, the onus is on the people who believe video games are causative factors of violent behavior to first show correlation. If they can't even do that, then we are under no obligation to throw away the null hypothesis.

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

#383

Post by buran77 »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #324
buran77 wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good friend of mine has conducted such a study some time ago (unfortunately I don't have a link at hand) and the team's conclusion was that the games themselves had no impact on violence, it was the multiplayer aspect that made the biggest difference. As in the frustration caused by the human factor in the game lead to far more negative sentiments and violence than the game itself with the same mechanics (playing a…

This was my personal experience too. And people will find ways to humiliate others in games without such measures like Halo's teabagging.

In real sports such a gesture would be met with widespread condemnation and actual in game punishment, bans, etc. Which is why games following real sports do it the same way. No sports game will allow you to simulate a celebration, or score your points in a manner lacking fair play, trying to replicate real life.

Allowing things like "teabagging" without instant ban for the user, even building dedicated humiliating moves in a game, or emphasizing some animations like slow motion kill cams when a certain score style was achieved are the reason I have a hard time respecting the gaming industry or taking e-sports seriously (purely because of games' design decisions, not the player).

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

#384

Post by SkyBelow »

ABCLAW wrote: post #376
umvi wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's some truth here, but it's important not to use anecdotes too much to guide intuition because the sample size is often too small and too biased. For example, I have a group of 10 friends. All 10 of them (including myself) got covid, and we all agree it is no worse than the flu. I mean, yeah, we couldn't smell or taste for a few days, but we all recovered within a week. Therefore... I should reflexively questio…

I think there's a fetish for this "don't trust your anecdotes" reply, when the reality is more nuanced. People will trust their anecdotes because in general they are right to. They don't need a double blind study to figure out that placing their hand on a heated element is a bad idea. The question is whether the Bayesian confidence an individual places on their anecdotal knowledge is appropriate or not. In this case,…

The issue is there is entire areas of psychology studying when we get things wrong. If it works until it doesn't, is it really something you should be trusted? Let us not forget that confirmation bias would also apply to how we judge the accuracy of our anecdotes. Is it that we don't really have that many cases where relying on personal anecdotes betrays us, or is it that we just diminish those incidents and pay more attention to when it does go well for us?

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

#385

Post by SkyBelow »

jchw wrote: post #292
yazboo wrote: post #80

I have noticed that many social science articles posted on Hacker News bring out critical comments about study design, doubts about the strength of the study's conclusions, that kind of thing. This submission, on the other hand, is a link to some kind of gaming news website, which links to an abstract for an article in a Cyberpsychology (?) journal which costs $60 to access, and there is widespread and uncritical agr…

The assertion that violent video games cause violence is pretty non-sensical to begin with given that violent media already existed before video games. It’s just another way to push censorship. You see a lot less criticism when the same thing is done for pornography and eroticism, even though there is no real hypothesis for why it would be any different.

One thing I don't quite get is the extent that people who are against the idea that (violent) videos games cause violence seem seem to have a very significant about face in opinion when the topic switches away from strictly physical violence to those that would fall more under the topics you raised, yet the logic is pretty much the same either way.

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

#386

Post by nathias »

yazboo wrote: post #80

I have noticed that many social science articles posted on Hacker News bring out critical comments about study design, doubts about the strength of the study's conclusions, that kind of thing. This submission, on the other hand, is a link to some kind of gaming news website, which links to an abstract for an article in a Cyberpsychology (?) journal which costs $60 to access, and there is widespread and uncritical agr…

I don't need a study to know that's true.

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

#387

Post by abfan1127 »

closeparen wrote: post #289
abfan1127 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I emphasize "work it out" so often with our kids. Funny story. my 4yo was playing with the neighborkids around the same age. the neighbor girl came to me to tattle, saying they weren't sharing. I told her you need to work it out with them, use your words and manners. Clearly not the result she was looking for, she turned and yelled "He said you have to share!" I clarified with the other kids "that's not what I said!…

"Work it out" is a strategy for equals. With major age/size/strength differences it just becomes domination and submission. Parents refusing to provide the "monopoly on violence" just results in kids who are worse at fighting learning to do whatever the bully says, and probably still getting beaten for the fun of it. I mean I do agree that kids need to learn to navigate conflict, but adults should ideally be monitori…

> Parents refusing to provide the "monopoly on violence" just results in kids who are worse at fighting learning to do whatever the bully says, and probably still getting beaten for the fun of it.

there's refusing to engage when its friends squabbling over toys. Its another whole level when battery comes in... Pretty big difference.

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

#388

Post by nearbuy »

fogihujy wrote: post #179
vmception wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

there is nothing different this day and age except awareness crime is lower across the board compared to 15-20 years ago ignorance was bliss, for you

> there is nothing different this day and age except awareness And the fact that crime has dropped like a rock, with a ~20 year lag, after leaded fuel was phased out.

This New Zealand study [1] attempted to look at the crime-lead relation in a place where it wasn't confounded by childhood socioeconomic status, and "failed to support a dose-response association between BLL (blood lead level) and consequential criminal offending".

I'm not trying to say the theory is wrong; just that correlations are really tricky to study, it's hard to control for all confounding variables, and it's hard to know for certain when a correlation is due to causation.

[1] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/...

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

#389

Post by colinmhayes »

abfan1127 wrote: post #81
Dumblydorr wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha! That's a good one. She heard what she wanted to hear, or she was testing out lying. Kids all test out lying around the pre-school age, some of them find it useful and keep doing it.

I'd lean towards the lying part. Her strategy of leveraging higher powers didn't pan out, so she went with plan B of illusion of leveraging higher powers.

She did what you told her to do.
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