Violent media causes violent
behavior. Right?
Since
the invention of talking films in the 1920s, social scientists have tried
to fathom the effect of moving pictures on behavior. The task gained renewed
urgency with the spread of television in the 1950s, and video games in
the 1980s.
The basis for concern is common sense, and the massive mess of massacres in our media. The average hour of children's TV carries upwards of 20 violent acts, and the average kid watches 17 hours a week.
So it's not surprising that researchers in field like social psychology and mass communication wonder about a possible link between violent media and violent behavior. Social science researchers can examine the issue with three types of study:
"Laboratory," or "experimental" studies randomly assign subjects to watch various kinds of media, then gauge the effects, usually soon afterwards. A laboratory study could examine, say, the relative impact of watching "Leave it to Beaver" or "Jackass" on a standardized test for hostility. The random assignment allows experimental studies to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between media violence and behavior.
After decades of argument, most researchers believe TV is linked with violent behavior. Craig Anderson of Iowa State University says the most convincing evidence comes from "meta-analyses" that collate the results of earlier studies. "When you take that broad perspective, almost regardless of the kind of methodology you are using, as long as it's a standard, well-validated scientific method, you pretty much get the same result -- that exposure to media violence increase aggression."
Game theory
But is it valid to extrapolate from TV to the newer
genre of video games? Yes, says Anderson. "Often, the video game industry
would like to pretend that all the research done on TV and movies is irrelevant,
but that's like saying research on Lucky Strikes is irrelevant to Camel
cigarettes. Media violence is media violence. There may be some differences,
but the basic underlying premise, that well-repeated exposure to TV violence
is associated with aggressive behavior, is also at work in movies and
video games."
In a recent meta-analysis (see "Effects of Violent Video Games..." in the bibliography), Anderson and colleague Brad Bushman summarized 35 studies of video games and aggression. Overall, Anderson and Bushman concluded that playing video games increased aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, aggressive emotional state, and physiological arousal (heart rate and blood pressure). At the same time, games reduced "pro-social" behavior -- the kind of "succor-thy-neighbor" responses that help us all get along.
One problem with video games is that they promote identification with aggressors. In Grand Theft Auto, Centerwall says, "You are not a good guy saving hostages, you are the mafia hit man gunning down the good guys. You are being asked to identify with a homicidal psychopath, and this game is widely available, widely marketed."
Indeed, video games may be more pernicious than TV. "There is research in the education domain showing that active learning produces better, deeper understanding," says Anderson. Active learning, he says, means "having the mind actively engaged in the learning activity.... You get the brain processing the information in an active way, making connections to related pieces of information."
In a video game, instead of placidly gazing at a boob tube, you are on the edge of your seat, scanning the screen for predators, and shooting at anything that moves.
And for sheer repetition and addictiveness, video games can hardly be beaten. "In the education literature," says Anderson, "educational video games are praised and used because they are so active. If you are teaching math or reading concepts, video games can keep the attention for a long time."
A shaft of light from heaven illuminates the head
of a blissed-out gamer.
Joanne Cantor, professor emerita of communications arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, agrees that research in violent media, including video games and especially TV, sums to a formidable indictment. "When the subject is studied in a whole variety of ways, with a whole set of populations, and different measures of aggression or violence, the overwhelming majority of studies show that watching media violence contributes to aggressive behavior."
While meta-analyses are important, Cantor finds individual studies persuasive. In Israel, she points out, the broadcast of World Wrestling Enterprises spectacles initiated a wave of imitation violence in schoolyards, as kids practiced the drop kicks and flying body slams they'd seen in the fantasy fights. (The schoolyard epidemic was controlled by a media literacy campaign -- stressing that the WWE is an act -and a reduction in the broadcast schedule).
To Cantor, the episode showed how media violence can cause physical harm. "It was not, as media apologists would say, that 'Nobody really gets hurt because the kids know it's make-believe'" (see "The Psychological Effects of Media..." in the bibliography).
Not the only cause
Generally, however, the relationship between media
and violence is played out in an indirect, statistical way. Even Anderson,
who is among the most articulate voices of concern, stresses, "No media
violence researcher I know has ever claimed that exposure to media violence,
by itself, is the single cause of any specific act of violence."
Instead, it's more accurate to say that violent media "moves the curve toward violence" rather than causing specific acts of violence.
At any rate, Anderson says the more extreme the crime, the greater the number of causes. "We have gone out of our way to say that extremely aggravated behavior isn't typically well predicted by any single risk factor; there are lots of risk factors involved, lots of causes."
But is the case really so neat? Why haven't murder rates soared with the introduction of the new, ever-more violent video games? Why are murder rates in Japan, home to notoriously violent video games (and comics, for that matter), so low?
Can I read the flip side of the argument?
There are 1
2 3 4 pages in this feature.
Bibliography | Credits
| Feedback | Search
©2002, University of Wisconsin, Board of Regents.