Harvard says video games don’t create violent children
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 9:40am by David
A Harvard study of 1200 children concluded that video games don’t cause children to become violent.
They discovered that children who played violent video games – those rated Mature or above – were just relieving stress. Some children did exhibit some playful fighting after playing games, but this was similar to what children have always done after watching action or Karate-type movies.
The most surprising find, though, was that boys that don’t play any video games at all are now considered to be socially inept.
A danger sign for boys is “not playing video games at all, because it looks like for this generation, video games are a measure of social competence.”
After four hours of playing GTA4 last night, I considered ramming my car into a double-parked car while commuting to work this morning to teach the idiot a lesson. Coincidence? Apparently. In all seriousness, do you think the Harvard researchers’ findings are a surprise?
[Thanks, Jeff. Source.]
May 13th, 2008 at 10:25 am
These findings are definitely not a surprise to me at all. Here is my take on this:
People are influenced by everything around them. Some people more than others. I believe that there are people who have a predisposition to be extremely influenced by games, media, books, music, TV, movies, etc.
Let’s look at alcohol as an example. Everyone who drinks is not an alcoholic, but if you give someone who has a drinking problem a bottle of wine, they have the predisposition to drink the entire bottle.
The same works for games or all media for that matter. If someone is mentally predispositioned to act out or be extremelt influenced by media, then you would not subject them to certain behavior in movies, games, TV, etc.
I can say that I am 31 years old, I have played games since I can remember (I drew pac-man in my baby book when I was little) and I have played games from Tetris to crazy off the hook Japanese porn titles to banned games like “Thrill Kill”. I am sure I have been influenced by each of these games individually, but no more than I have been affected by reading Harry Potter or watching Iron Man.
OK, this is becoming a rant… sorry. I’ll stop now.
May 13th, 2008 at 10:45 am
No surprise at all here!
The relationship between video games and youth violence had been completely fabricated by the previous generation who didn’t “get” video games. I think it was just the fear of the generation gap for them.
The reality was actually the opposite: violence among young people has actually decreased in the years since video games became a cultural staple. There might not be a causal correlation, although studies like this one might show us that that isn’t the case, just not the way the anti-video game movement thought it would be!
May 13th, 2008 at 11:08 am
No surprise here either. I’m just glad we’re getting studies now to show that… not that I expect the anti-game crowd to listen to it, but it’s a start.
May 13th, 2008 at 11:17 am
To quote the movie “Scream”, and adapting to our discussion: “Games don’t create psychos; games make psychos more creative.”
Meaning: if a nutjob blows a car with a bazuca in the middle of the street, it’s not GTA’s fault. Yeah, maybe he got the idea from it, but he was probably nuts to begin with, and would’ve done it anyway.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Well, thankfully, some research was done and results were released, but I have a question: are most of the parents intelligent enough to understand this?
The parents I have talked with are extremely naive to how video games work, and they are the ones who don’t think about the ESRB, much less comprehend what the ESRB is.
They are the ones that make the mindless purchases of M-rated games, not understanding what content the game actually possesses.
Does an M-rated game make a violent person? No, not really. It’s just kids reacting to their stressful environments they live in, whether it be a horrible school life, or a horrible home life with their parents.
If their parents fight, they themselves will have a built-in violent nature, and the video games do not cause that to become more severe.
However, with the education level that the USA has, which is extremely horrible, the majority of the people can’t really comprehend intelligent results from a place like Harvard. Thankfully, gen-X people like me still have some intelligence (and I am a computer programmer), so we can be more open-minded.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
“The most surprising find, though, was that boys that don’t play any video games at all are now considered to be socially inept.”
I feel sorry for those that can’t afford a videogames console.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I’ve been saying this for years.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
not a surprise…bad parents make bad kids not tv, video games, music, or movies.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I disagree. In 1986, after playing hours of Super Mario Bros. I was so tripped out on mushrooms that I kidnapped some girl in a pink dress and committing amphibicide. Additionally, ever since I played the Iron Man demo for PS3, I’ve just sucked non-stop.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
MOMs and DADs make violent children they just come out that way. If nothing else works scream or hit till one gets their way. So the word punishment pops up a lot! Every thing is dealt with in a negative way.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Duh.
May 13th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
harvard ftw!! w00t!
May 13th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
You know what I’ve noticed? Everyone who takes the defensive in the “video games cause violence” argument are from a time when video games weren’t that violent. Their parents did an alright job of raising them, and they weren’t exposed to hooker killing games at a young age. What worries me more than anything else about games like GTA IV is what will happen to the next generation of adults that were raised on this crap? We can argue about video game violence until our faces turn blue (I actually side with Jack Thompson, by the way), but the real issue isn’t a psychological one but a moral one. Is it morally responsible to even allow games like these to exist? You can argue that you don’t have to commit crime in GTA, but the fact is the majority of people playing it are committing horrible crimes. How will making a game out of beating hookers to death affect the moral compasses of the next generation of adult video gamers? As games like GTA increase in popularity, and as kids grow up faster today than they did a decade or so ago (the teen pregnancy rate is much higher than it was in, say, 1990, and amount of children being raised in broken homes seems to have increased as well), is it right that we as adults—who were fortunate enough to be raised on games where it was almost always good vs. evil, and crime was taboo–are leaving for the next generation a world where games where you sell drugs, beat prostiutes to death, and run over anyone you see on the street can actually be called “the greatest game of all time”?
May 13th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
“You can argue that you don’t have to commit crime in GTA, but the fact is the majority of people playing it are committing horrible crimes”
To clarify, I meant committing crimes in the game world. Of course GTA isn’t turning mature responsible adults into criminals (God forbid we admit that THEY could actually be influenced by a game), but what it does for the future generation of adult gamers is something worth taking into consideration. Morals wither and fall apart—anyone who thinks America isn’t in worse shape than it was in the 1960’s or 70’s is either stupid or naive. How will playing games where there are no consequences for any of the bad things you do affect the next generation of adult video gamers? I mean kids are actually growing up playing this crap. But we don’t care—we just pass the blame to the uninformed parents. As long as we get to have fun doing reprehensible things in a virtual game world, who cares about the future?
May 13th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
human beings in general are violent look around at the world, i didn’t mean parents make their kids violent; we already have a pre-existing condition to be violent. i meant it is the parents who impose proper guidelines between reality and fiction, right from wrong, and good and bad morals. true a child in the end will make thier own decisions, but for the majority of people (free from abuse or psychological problems) who had good parents will make good choices whether they play GTA IV or not and really generations don’t matter, do we have a bunch of 50 somethings dropping god damn anvils on peoples heads because they watched bugs bunny?
May 13th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I don’t find this to be a surprise, I’ve played all types of games and it’s never made me more violent. I think a person has to have a predisposition towards violent behavior for a game to send them over the edge. Playing a violent game won’t turn an already non-violent person into a murderer as the rest of the un-educated society would have parents believe. I’m glad there’s finally some evidence on the side of video games to back up what most gamers already know.
May 13th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
poochy, remember all the uproar eminem? rock and roll? comic books? and elvis’s hips?
somehow, generations keep brushing aside these influences. aside from the 60s, and disco, how bad have things really turned out?
new media always scares people. however, time takes care of that, ensuring that those who grew up with it eventually start setting the status quo as adults.
just wait for the uproar over 3-d virtual murder on the virtual-wii-boy2!! finally we’ll be able to brainwash this society into the psychopaths we’ve always wanted to be! why so serious?!?!?!?
May 14th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Please Poochy I been killing people in video games since joust. It does matter if it’s a hooker or not why does that make it any more wrong? They are all gamer characters and before that you used your GI-joes to slaughter barbies when female friends came over to play LOL. Also too every game was about taking the law into your own hand it was up to you to save the world. Or either it was out of pure revenge. To save this world you did not go by way of due process you let god sort them out so really your point holds no weight. Even when trying to survive the ET head infested atari games it was alway in the back of your mind that this was a person. This is some people do period. Actually the realism in violent games actually some times lets people do really violent things and get it out of their system so they can calm down. It has become a way for people to vent which is needed to some degree.
Violence is a direct result of either power or poverty two extremes. During both situation thinking has become the last thing you are thinking about.
May 14th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Does it matter if it’s a hooker or not? Does it make it such a worst thing?
The better moral crucher is what if you killed all of those enemies in all of those game and they where really lies! LOL Really when is it ok to just kill any thing in a game then? NEVER does it influence people? Thats like asking a murder what tricked him into to think he had to kill?
May 14th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
GO HARVARD! now if only they could convince my mom, then we’d be in business. i’ve heard good things about GTA4, but i won’t be able to play it till i’m both a)mature[17+] and b)out of the house. and by then, i’ll be in college, so i won’t have to worry about crabby parents worrying if i’m being influenced badly by really awesome games