On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, Richard Pisacreta, Ph.D. went:

> If media sells products, which it does, or advertisers wouldn't spend
> billions on commercials, how can we then say that the show content has no
> lasting effect? I don't think that you can have it both ways.

Applying that argument-by-analogy more specifically to the issue of
video-game violence, you could end up with an assertion like this:

"If people who played a lot of Pac-Man in the '80s showed no lasting
increase in their propensity to consume cherries, strawberries, and
bananas (the fruits whose consumption is rewarded in Pac-Man), how can
we then say that people who play a lot of violent video games will
show a lasting increase in aggression?  I don't think you can have it
both ways."

If you reject my Pac-Man comparison but continue to stand by your
comparison to commercials...well, I don't think you can have it both
ways.  :)

So...data, anyone?  I've pointed out that there have been no relevant
randomized trials since Cameron & Janky (1971), and no one on TIPS has
refuted that.  (Lindsay Holland had written "If you want a couple of
studies, e-mail me backchannel," but I did, and I got no response.)

--David Epstein
  [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Reference:

Cameron, Paul; Janky, Christine.  The effects of TV violence upon
children: A naturalistic experiment.  Proceedings of the Annual
Convention of the American Psychological Association 6(1): 233-234,
1971.


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