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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

#491

Post by raindropm »

Last time I play Assassin's Creed:Origin, I have to stop halfway because I'm tired of all those senseless killing. I feel bad and sad for those virtual Roman soldier I've killed, how can that even happened? (P.S. I'm not the only one)

I think part of it is because videogames graphics and animation these day is so realistic(and it will keep getting more real) All the blood and gore and violence and how you kill someone are realistically depicted. Or maybe its objective clashes with my identity and values(I'm not okay running around and killing people in real life, of course)

Note that I can "kill" hundreds of infantry in Dynasty Warrior game (which is much less realistic) and doesn't feel a single thing.

I believe that what you consume, whatever it is, effect you one way or another, despite "researcher" tell you otherwise.

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

#492

Post by Groxx »

iso8859-1 wrote: post #397
vlunkr wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that in most games, the violence is not the goal, just the mechanics. You're either competing with other players, trying to fulfill a quest, surviving the zombie apocalypse, etc. Very few games are really "murder simulators" and when they do come along, even if they are meant to be satirical or something, they are usually controversial.

If the mechanics were sufficient, why are people not posting more pictures of airliners flying into buildings in Flight Simulator? It is a simulator, so it has the best mechanics. The violence is the only thing missing. Flight Simulator will just display a boring dialog saying "you crashed".

Because flying into a building doesn't gain you any benefits in the game. It's not part of a goal, it has no purpose.

Since it's not part of the mechanics: as you point out, it's not (frequently) done. That seems to support the claim that it's not about seeking violence.

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

#494

Post by Nowado »

MisterTea wrote: post #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 yo…

> Plus its a good aggression outlet for young boys.

Post-freudian hydraulic metaphor of emotions. That one's about as outdated as psychological views get.

We have experimental data that punching things when you are mad doesn't make you less mad, to give the most straight forward example.

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

#495

Post by andrewla »

ineedasername wrote: post #438
andrewla wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look in the comment thread to links to scihub. Yes, they use an off-the-shelf diagnostic tool. No, that does not make the methodology sound. They use a word like "aggression" which has a qualitative meaning and attempt to assign a quantitative metric to it. To assign a meaning to it, I would have to go to other studies to find out how this links to my various qualitative notion of "aggressive": incidence of violent c…

If they are using an existing & proven diagnostic tool to quantify aggression then you can't criticize them for quantifying a qualitative variable (which is perfectly acceptable when done right) unless you are appropriately addressing flaws within that diagnostic tool. You're correct, use of such a tool doesn't automatically validate their methodology, but it does shift a lot of the focus of any criticism in the dire…

> which is perfectly acceptable when done right

Yes, perfectly acceptable. But garbage for the reasons I described above. You can probably tell that I don’t have a high opinion of social science studies, so it’s unlikely that I’ll be convinced that this is one of the vanishingly small number of studies that I’ll concede has any validity at all.

It’s garbage because it tries to assign a quantity to an English word that already means something. They are piggybacking the formal (which is limited in scope and meaning) on the informal (which is deep and reflective of human experience). If Jane Goodall makes an observation about aggressiveness in social situations it’s a judgement that I can easily accept. There’s great value in trying to obtain a detailed qualitative understanding of behavior.

On the other hand it’s one of the great mistakes of the social sciences to assume that quantification is necessary for engaging in science; this results in “metricism” or “scientist”, which cargo cults the trappings of the physical sciences without any of their insightful power.

Of course the conclusion of the article is correct, but I would not consider this evidence for that conclusion. If they had reached the opposite conclusion I would also have dismissed it entirely, so it’s only fair I do the same even though it lines up with my personal beliefs and experiences.

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

#496

Post by nyhc99 »

mc32 wrote: post #444
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…

I think it’s a reflection that we have not a general framework worked out. We also don’t seem to entirely want to know “the truth”. For example the entertainment media on the one hand say that entertainment does not influence people via depictions of violence, etc., to emulate such things. On the other hand they say that how people are portrayed for positive role models “I could be that person” they are necessary and…

There's a great reason to discourage one and not the other: There are lots of people out there who have been victims of sexual violence, and these depictions would do emotional harm to them. On the other hand, there are exactly zero people out there who have been victims of lethal violence and might now be hurt if they play your game.

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

#497

Post by Bjartr »

raindropm wrote: post #491

Last time I play Assassin's Creed:Origin, I have to stop halfway because I'm tired of all those senseless killing. I feel bad and sad for those virtual Roman soldier I've killed, how can that even happened? (P.S. I'm not the only one) I think part of it is because videogames graphics and animation these day is so realistic(and it will keep getting more real) All the blood and gore and violence and how you kill someon…

Of course, but there's no reason to disparage those that aim to study these phenomena.

This study didn't conclude that the media you consume had no effect. It merely reported observed effects and concluded that playing a lot of violent video games as a child is a poor predictor of aggression later in life. That's it.

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

#498

Post by selestify »

yibg wrote: post #483
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…

I wonder about this too. There seems to be some inconsistencies with how society thinks about violence vs sex. Rape and murder are two of the most serious crimes, and both are punished severely; with murder more severely in most cases. But when movies or games depicts extreme violence, including murder, it’s seems as fairly normal and accepted. But when rape for example is depicted, it causes a lot of controversy. Ul…

I suspect such taboos are due more to emotionally-driven Puritanism than anything else. I agree that it’s interesting why we have such taboos in the first place.

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

#499

Post by Macha »

greggman3 wrote: post #486
honkycat wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I feel like the mainstream games industry is pretty chaste. A large part of the audience is younger, and it is their parents who are buying the games. You want something to be engaging, maybe even edgy, but not so edgy that mom and dad wouldn't want little johnny playing it. Part of the equation is that combat is interesting to simulate. It has clear rules ( live or die ), a lot of different ways you can twe…

GTA3, Vice, SA, 4, and 5 are chaste? Far Cry 3, 4, 5? Red Dead Redemption series? God Of War 1, 2, 3, Reboot? The Witcher series? Mass Effect series? Are you sure we're talking about the same game industry?

Honestly, GTA has been mellowing out over the years. the antics of running around a strip club beheading prostitutes as might have happened in vice city are replaced with a focus with the main story which most of the time would not be out of place on primetime TV - is it still set in a dark crime world, yes. But they've moved on from the level of shock factor of earlier titles. There's maybe one sequence in the first 40-50% of GTA V I played that I can recall as being very shocking.

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

#500

Post by chiefalchemist »

tomnipotent wrote: post #454
chiefalchemist wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Does that indicate that I have a violent desire is to go out and shoot people? Absolutely not. Perhaps. But does it mean you're more tolerant of violence? And that others such as yourself eventually aggregate to have a collective impact on the broader culture? And what about 10 or 20 years from now, will your non-desire to shoot people still not exist? Neuro-plasticity effectively dictatess we are what we consume,…

> Perhaps No, which is the entire premise of the linked article we're discussing. > And what about 10 or 20 years from now, will your non-desire to shoot people still not exist? Perhaps, but it will have considerably less to do with video games than other life factors. > Neuro-plasticity effectively dictatess we are what we consume, we are what we do This isn't what neuro-plasticity means. It means your brain can per…

Neuro-plasticity means what it says: the brain is moldable. It's not static. It's not set in stone. Prior to neuro-plasticity the brain was perceived as being set in stone, so to speak.

The brain is a result of how you "exercise" it, or not. It's the result of what you feed it, or not. It's not static.

Neuro-plasticity enables stroke victims to recover. And the depth and breadth of that recovery is a function of how much or not the brain is forced to rewire.

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