DO VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES MAKE PEOPLE MORE VIOLENT?

1. The American Psychological Association says playing violent video games makes people more violent.  In this report, they disprove 11 myths about violent video games.  


2. In this NPR report,  Bushman, a Social psychologist, believes that violent video games desensitize young people. Compared to people in the real world who are gentle and compassionate, students playing these games seem to be mean and hurtful. But Chris Ferguson, a psychologist at the Texas A&M International University, disagrees. He's conducted similar experiments and also sees similar behavior changes among students. But he interprets them very differently.  

3. In an essay by Henry Jenkins, "It's true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure." 

4. A list of Pros and Cons of violent videos games on procon.org.  

5. "Overall, violent video games lead to decreases in violent crime."

6.  Steven Johnson points out how much more complex popular culture is today than in the past, including the complexity of videogames (compare PacMan with Simsgames). He argues that the increased complexity promotes intelligence. For example, when you play a videogame, it is often a frustrating learning experience that requires you to repeatedly problem solve to learn the game. In fact, James Paul Gee suggests that you even learn "the scientific method" through the necessary trial and error of figuring out how to meet goals in the game.