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Real Time Videogame Violence
Lorna Pratt-Guerrero
English Department, National University
ILR260: Information Literacy and Research
Prof. Richard Tracey
ILR 260
April 17, 2022
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Real Time Videogame Violence School shootings have become a common occurrence in America. Violence is at an all-
time high, and a large portion of it is perpetrated by young people. What do the majority of today's young people have in common? Video games, particularly the most violent ones, such as Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption, are the most popular, but is there a link between video game violence and real-life aggression? Elly Konijn and Marije Bijvank, leading psychology professors and researchers at the University of Amsterdam, believe this to be true, stating that "if players identify and connect with violent game characters and become immersed in that game, those who will unquestionably become more aggressive regardless of the consequences." Even though this is a controversial claim, it is one that is supported by study and research; of course, other studies and research may reveal differently, each of which demands a response to one concern. Is there a link between violent video games and real-life physical aggression?
At the University of Amsterdam, Elly Konijn and Marije Bijvank are both notable psychology professors. They collaborated on a study specifically found at whether or not violent video games promote hostility when players identify with violent video game characters. Teenage children with low levels of education were chosen at random to take part “in an experiment in which they played a realistic violent and nonviolent video game. Next, they competed with a partner on a reaction time task in which the winner could blast loud noises in the loser’s headphones knowing that it may cause serious harm to the ears of those receiving the noise blast (the aggressive measure). The most hostile youngsters, as predicted, were those who played violent games and wished they were the character they were playing as. These findings
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revealed that connecting with violent video game characters, particularly realistic ones in which the subject might get completely immersed” (Konjin & Bijvank), causes gamers to become more
violent, despite the consequences. With that kind of a clear official explanation, one might assume it was a done deal, yet various scholars in different regions have come up with different conclusions.
Tobias Greitemeyer and Dirk Mugge work at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Innsbruck. Their findings were intriguing after countless hours of research into the impact of video games and whether they encourage aggressiveness or pro social behavior. There was a substantial social consequence for both violent and prosocial video games, according to 98
independent research with 36,965 participants. For the most part, the findings of each study were
as expected, with violent video games encouraging violent behavior and prosocial video games encouraging the opposite, but in some cases, more than one might expect, violent video games were discovered to be a release of aggression for the players, resulting in harmonious brain effects. With so many studies and people participating in the research, the authors were likely to come up with varied conclusions, but the overall conclusion was that violent games indeed increase violent social behavior, as previously indicated. Despite the fact that the end result's average was the same as in the prior study, the research yielded mixed outcomes. Perhaps video game violence isn't all awful.
Christopher John Ferguson is an American psychologist who works at Stetson University in Florida as a professor and co-chair of psychology. At the time that the author wrote this article, the mass homicide at Virginia tech was but only a couple months past, and with so many studies arguing the fact that violent video games lead to actual violence, Ferguson decided to do his own meta-analysis on the subject. The author claims that while players of violent games
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might experience an increase in aggressiveness, there can also be good impacts, such as visuospatial cognition, based on a thorough internet search targeting peer-reviewed papers. The author's research concluded that there was insufficient evidence to "blame" video games for increased aggressiveness, but that they might develop abilities such as looking for and identifying objects, keeping stuff in your visual memory, and recognizing patterns, among others. Ferguson felt it was necessary to shift the focus away from the violent gaming argument and onto the medium's potential cost-benefit analysis. It appears that it is not the violence in the games that is affecting the players, but rather the impacts of the game on already deviant gamers.
Nonetheless, especially in some spheres of labor, a lack of empathy cannot be overlooked.
Karlie Krause is a doctor who works in the department of behavioral medicine at a Midwestern university. With numerous studies claiming that violence in video games causes aggression and a lack of empathy, and with the video game industry being a rapidly growing entertainment industry, Krause decided to conduct her own small experiment, knowing that practicing doctors must have a high level of empathy in order to properly care for their patients. She used a 30-item survey with 81 undergrad students on a hospital campus to assess not just the levels of video game play, but also the kind of games they played (violent or nonviolent). After that, two groups (violent and nonviolent players) were developed for a follow-up investigation to
measure empathy levels. The results indicated no difference in empathy, and violent video game players had lower stress levels than their counterparts, suggesting that violent games might be an useful adaptive stress reliever in a high-paced stressful industry like healthcare. However, she concludes that additional study is needed.
The debate remains whether video game violence causes players to become more aggressive. The outcomes of the many research are varied, but one thing is certain. Any
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reduction in screen time would be beneficial. I believe that if more individuals walked outside and breathed fresh air, the general public's level of hostility would drop significantly.
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Ferguson C.J. (2007). The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Positive and Negative Effects of Violent Video Games.
Psychiatric Quarterly
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(4), 309–316.
Greitemeyer T. & Mugge D. (2014). Video Games Do Affect Social Outcomes: A Meta- Analytical Review of Violent and Prosocial Video Game Play.
Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin
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(5), 578–589.
Konji E. & Bijvank M. (2007). I Wish I Were A Warrior: The Role of Wishful Identification in The Effects of Violent Video Games on Aggression in Adolescent Boys.
Developmental Psychology
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(4), 1038–1044.
Krause K. (2020). Exploring the Effects of Violent Video Games on Healthcare Trainees.
Simulation & Gaming
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(5), 653–665.
Waddell T.F., Bailey E., Weber M., Ivory J.D., Downs E. (2019). When media violence awakens
our better nature: The effect of unpleasant violence on reactivity toward and enjoyment of media violence.
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media
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(4), 698–715.
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