>> -----Original Message----- > >There has never been a well-performed study which has shown a causal effect >between violent media and violent acts.
How many randomized control studies do you want that shows a relationship between aggressive behavior and violent media? I do not think you could ethically do such a study, but there are a lot of naturalistic observational type research that shows such a linkage. I can start with Bandura's studies in the early 60's and continue from there. Here are some recent studies that explored the linkage between aggressive behavior and playing violent video games. http://gip.uniovi.es/docume/pro_vs/liter_emp_vv.pdf http://intl-psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/12/1679 http://www.mediawise.org/research/Gentile_Lynch_Linder_Walsh_20041.pdf http://intl-psp.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/28/12/1679 I liked the following study for its use of some very sophisticated statistics to try to tease out the causal relationships: The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance Douglas A. Gentilea,*, Paul J. Lynchb, Jennifer Ruh Linderc, David A. Walsha Abstract Video games have become one of the favorite activities of American children. A growing body of research is linking violent video game play to aggressive cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors. The first goal of this study was to document the video games habits of adolescents and the level of parental monitoring of adolescent video game use. The second goal was to examine associations among violent video game exposure, hostility, arguments with teachers, school grades, and physical fights. In addition, path analyses were conducted to test mediational pathways from video game habits to outcomes. Six hundred and seven 8th- and 9th-grade students from four schools participated. Adolescents who expose themselves to greater amounts of video game violence were more hostile, reported getting into arguments with teachers more frequently, were more likely to be involved in physical fights, and performed more poorly in school. Mediational pathways were found such that hostility mediated the relationship between violent video game exposure and outcomes. Results are interpreted within and support the framework of the General Aggression Model. -- When I looked through the results, the path analysis showed that there was a direct and indirect relationship between amount of playing violent video games and getting into fights and other violence. Moreover the goodness of fit results were fairly robust. That suggests that their over all model fits what's happening in the population as a whole. While the relationship between playing violent video games and aggressive behavior in this study was only moderate, it was considerably strengthened when you added hostility into the mix - the relationship between violence and the playing videogames got even stronger. Problem is that hostility and frequency of playing violent video games is recursive, in other words related. So it becomes very difficult to isolate the full contribution of each. Most likely its an additive relationship with aggressive behavior. If the kids are hostile in the first place they are more likely to play violent video games. And the more games they play the more likely they're to get into fights and aggress against their teacher. > >Consumption of violent media does trigger an small, temporary increase >aggressive behavior although not in immoral behavior. This is exemplified >by driving faster, or betting more aggressively in games of chance. But >there is no indication that individuals are more likely to intentionally >harm others because of it. > >A recent study also showed that the effect is the same for all violent >media, regardless of graphicness. Realistically portrayed violence elicits >the same reactions and results as non-realistic ("cartoony") violence. > >> Therefore one question is, do we want a society that celebrates >> violence in film, video games, and television? It would seem to me >> that if we want a vice it should be s3x, not violence. > >Apparently we do. Murder rates in the US are the lowest they've been in >decades. > >I completely agree that we need to stop fearing boobies as well, but there >is no evidence that violent media, and video games in particular, had causal >relationships in any of these crimes. It's for this very reason that Jack >Thompson has been unable to win a case. > >Violence is an undeniable aspect of the human condition. It should be >celebrated and understood, not sanctioned and repressed. > >I wholeheartedly agree that video games, in general, lean towards violence >more than they need to. I would like to see them, like books and film, run >a more rounded emotional gauntlet (and in many ways that's already >happened). But that's a personal desire, not a claim of social >responsibility or change. > >Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJP Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:232885 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
