Do Video Games Cause Violence?

Noah Hess
Mr. Bigley
2A
9 February 2015
Do Violent Video Games Cause Violent Behavior?
"Video games are bad for you? That's what they said about rock-n-roll."- Shigeru Miyamoto. The subject of whether or not video games are good or bad for one's health or mind has been fairly controversial over the years and has brought up a lot of arguments. Some people claim video games make you a more violent person and are more likely to commit crimes or even murder, but the amount of people who play video games and commit crimes is a far cry from the amount of people who play video games and have never broken a law in their lives.
Studies have shown that in 2011 every ten percent of violent video games sold in an area lowered the crime rate in the same area by one percent. Other studies showed that in areas with video game stores there was a decrease in crime rate. Researchers use apes as an example in studies of how our brain differentiates play and real life scenarios. Apes differentiate play fighting and real fighting in the same way that humans do. Apes enjoy wrestling and tossing each other around as a playful thing but can also engage in mortal combat and rip each other apart. People differentiate video games and real life in the same way that apes do with play fighting and real fighting. People who play video games see them as playing and not something that's real whereas in a real life situation their brain would react and think completely differently. Children who responded to video games the same way as the real world showed symptoms of being severely mentally disturbed.

Studies in Singapore show that children who play violent video games often show more aggression later in life and more often believe that hitting is okay. Researchers asked children how much they played video games throughout the week, what their three favorite video games were, and if they ever daydreamed about hurting someone and whether they thought it was okay to hit. The percentage of children who played violent video games and had more violent fantasies was a very low marginal percentage. Parental involvement made no changes in Singapore but supplied varied results in the United States causing people to believe that Singapore's culture changed some of the statistics of the research.
The studies correlating to violent video games in Singapore could have been flawed because some children would be more likely to admit violent behavior or thoughts skewing the data. As far as video games affecting violence, there has been no evidence that video games make a person more prone bullying, fighting, or committing violent acts like school shootings.
A study from the University of Oxford in the UK about how video games affect thoughts and actions hypothesizes that it isn't violent video games that make people more violent but rather difficult video games make people aggressive or violent. Studies show that if and individual cannot beat or master a section of a game whether or not it is violent can cause that individual to become aggressive and angry. When someone is playing a video game and they feel like they aren't in control or are being defeated by the game they are likely to be aggressive and blame not being able to beat the game on something or someone else that has nothing to do with the game. Researchers say that if the game is too difficult for someone to get enjoyment from playing it then that is what causes violence rather than the violent content in the games.
Looking at many different sources and theories it appears to me that there are many things factoring into the cause of violence in individuals who play violent games. The results are affecting by the household one lives in, by their parents, their mental state, and the difficulty of the game. Looking at these statistics my conclusion is that violent content does not affect how people act. The answer is more a combination of difficulty, a person's state of mind, and The environment someone lives in that affects someone being violent or not because of video games.


Works Cited
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