Yes, video games can cause aggression

[SoopaSte123]

What you're describing is short term agression though.
What the "videogames are bad" crowd are saying is that games can cause a long-term change in behaviour and relation to violence. I don't think anyone's debating that you can get pissed off playing a game or might try to emulate what you see in the game.

That may seem like common sense to me and you, but it's not to others. The studies are most certainly short-term studies and not long-term ones but are being advertised with the implication that they are long term.

Ah, I guess that gets to the root of the problem: we need to stop arguing that video games don't cause aggression and start arguing that the studies only look at short-term behavior (you may already be promoting this point, but I have not heard this argument before).

 

[Zyst]

Yeah, I know what you mean, but basically it comes down to: "So?"

Yes, they cause aggression, and if you are fucked up enough to go on a rampage shooting people at a school video games were likely not the thing that tipped you over.

 

[SoopaSte123]

Although in this case you're right, don't use yourself as a case study. That way leads to Freud. You canot say 'yes, video games cause violence because I played a videogame and got aggressive' because I can counter immediately by saying 'no, videogames do not cause aggression because I played the same videogame and did not get aggressive.' Neither of us is necessarily more right, this is the entire foundation of proper scientific study.

I wasn't trying to do be a scientific study, just showing my observations through my life of playing video games with anecdotes of myself. I've seen evidence for my case from many people, I just remember my stories most clearly. I certainly see your point, however.

Also, this point is well known, and doesn't need to be argued over again, the argument shouldn't be 'do videogames make you more aggressive,' it should be 'do videogames make you more aggressive than any other form of media.'

There was a study done in the mid-90s on an island that had never had television before (the sort of study you can only do in the mid nighties). A group of social psychologists decided that they had to study what would happen, and so they observed the children of the island before and after television became available to them. Before, they were still mildly aggressive, but in a more competitive sense, ie. sports, academics

After, they began to play-fight, ie. competition for the sake of competition. The researchers linked this to (of all things) Power Rangers. Basically, once the children had seen Power Rangers, they started to emulate it.

Yep, this is exactly the point I was trying to make in my Case 2.

Issue the second is this:

Videogames do not make you kill people. This is the loony lawyer in America who's claiming that the top ten reasons for teenagers killing people include videogames. This could not be worse scientific method. The simple test is this:

How many teenagers around the world play violent videogames?
Of the above group, how many teenagers have committed murder?

If violent videogames caused murder, (causation not correlation) then the majority of teenagers who played violent videogames would murder someone. Since they don't, and the number is so small it can't even be called a minority, more a blip on the graph, the argument shouldn't even need to be brought up.

I agree, that's insanity. Again, I feel like the argument needs to change from "video games don't cause aggression!" like I keep hearing to statements like yours calling out the faulty logic.

 

[Lenvoran]

What you're describing is short term agression though.
What the "videogames are bad" crowd are saying is that games can cause a long-term change in behaviour and relation to violence. I don't think anyone's debating that you can get pissed off playing a game or might try to emulate what you see in the game.

Agreed. But then those same people ignore those amongst society who riot over a lost sports game. Because that's so much better adjusted than gamers are.

This is the same process that happened to basically every form of media as it's developed. If I remember correctly, plays used to be considered childish and silly things that were corrupting the public. And now they're fine art.

It's just a cycle that happens in society until the next thing comes along to be bashed on instead. Some people just aren't happy unless they have something to fight against.

 

[NickCaligo42]

Most studies have said they tend to increase agression/energy within a short timeframe of playing them, but the effects quickly dwindle. It's the same thing as when you see kids walking out of the latest GI Joe movie and doing karate kicks and getting all wound up.

Or hurling punches at a punching bag a lot, or doing anything that physically promotes aggression, really...

It's called the recency effect, it's a pretty typical principle of psychological inertia. Whatever identity we've been using, we tend to keep using until other cues and social contexts override. So, yeah, when your brain has been moving a mile a minute and you get anxiety up over a competitive game of... well, anything, could be foozball really, you tend to make more aggressive decisions.

 

[TehCookie]

I think you're just violent. I do think violence in media will make people who are incline to be more violent, violent, but doesn't affect those who tend to be more peaceful. Competition doesn't cause violence, it may cause anger but not everyone channels anger to violence. I channel anger through yelling and walking away, no one is forcing me to play.

Also being a kid I also watched my fair share of violent TV shows and then reenacted then with my brother. When we were play fighting we never hit each other, we would throw a light punch and the other person would over exaggerate it like they just got hit by someone with super strength, there was no pain involved.

Haha I'm not a violent person, but I did have anger problems as a child, which is what led to the experiences I wrote about. Yes of course there will be more reserved people who never have violent tendencies, but that doesn't mean they don't affect them.

Competition can cause anger. Yes, not in everybody, but you can't argue it doesn't happen if you've ever watched a professional sporting event.

I said competition causes anger, point I was getting at was anger =/= violence. If someone first reaction anger is acting out in a violent manner, I consider them to be slightly violent. I believe games don't make people violent, they just put them in a situation where people's natural violent tendencies are more easily exposed.

 

[Gunner 51]

Video games didn't make you violent, your pride did that.

Depending upon the game you play, if you're playing something like Black Ops or Tekken which require twitchy and adrenaline fueled reflexes and you lose at it - you're gonna rage. Mostly because you were unsporting and graceless at the time of playing.

Here's a life lesson for you: that the minute you stop having fun with a game - put it away and play something else. Because if you lose and get stressed, your stress will make you reckless and you'll make stupid mistakes and lose again and again - and get more stressed as a result.

Losing repeatedly may put you in a mad mood, but whether or not you decide to throw a punch is not the game's decision - but yours.

 

[triggrhappy94]

There's a difference between psychopathic murder agression brought on by becoming desensatived to violence and the want to recreate scenes of violence, and oh-screw-this agression brought on by frustration.

 

[SoopaSte123]

snip

I said competition causes anger, point I was getting at was anger =/= violence. If someone first reaction anger is acting out in a violent manner, I consider them to be slightly violent. I believe games don't make people violent, they just put them in a situation where people's natural violent tendencies are more easily exposed.

I fully agree with that.

Video games didn't make you violent, your pride did that.

Depending upon the game you play, if you're playing something like Black Ops or Tekken which require twitchy and adrenaline fueled reflexes and you lose at it - you're gonna rage. Mostly because you were unsporting and graceless at the time of playing.

Here's a life lesson for you: that the minute you stop having fun with a game - put it away and play something else. Because if you lose and get stressed, your stress will make you reckless and you'll make stupid mistakes and lose again and again - and get more stressed as a result.

Losing repeatedly may put you in a mad mood, but whether or not you decide to throw a punch is not the game's decision - but yours.

While I agree with you, I feel like that was aimed at me (must have been the "for you" part haha) which makes me laugh because I was about age 8 or 9 at the time. Of course its the person ultimately responsible for violence and not the game, but aggressive feelings can be caused by games (like most anything else) which is exactly what I was saying.

If I taunt the school bully and he hits me, he is responsible for the violence and his violent behavior, but I am the one who helped provoke it. Similar idea

 

[mocruz1200]

i think the whole "video games promote violence thing" is a load of crap.
i play shooters, all the people that i know who play shooters(even the ones who are gun nuts) are docile people. games like CoD, L4D, TF2, GoW, ETC., let you do things you cant in real life. you get to experience a simulation of war(CoD,Battlefield,GoW) survival(L4D,Dead Rising, Dead Space, Killing Floor ETC.) or just plain killing others with a sort of humor attached to it.(TF2). yes, some people are agressive, and SURPRISE! some of them play video games. and, with all respect to you and the examples you chose, i bielive that they are wrong for your argument. your Tekken example: i used to play Street fighter at an arcade with buddies and random people there. and, like your example, things would get heated up, to the point where we DID end up in blows.now is that because of the video game? or our competitive nature? if we had been paintballing, playing football(the real kind, not handegg =P), or basketball, the outcome would have probably been the same. competitive people will be competitive.
as far as your second example, i turn to this:

now im not calling anyone a retard with this, but what i am trying to say is that it is not the persons fault(child or adult)for wanting to replicate something they saw, but in the case of the child, proper guidance should be provided to teach them that not everything that they see is real, nor should they try it.

TLDR?
1. people will be competititive, no matter what the activity
2. kids will be idiots that want to mimic every cool thing they see on tv/movies/games. but its up to the parents to teach them better.

 

[Jake0fTrades]

Judging by the fact that your conscience didn't prevent you from punching your best friend and your own sister in the stomach, it sounds like you're already a pretty aggressive person.

 

[SoopaSte123]

i think the whole "video games promote violence thing" is a load of crap.
i play shooters, all the people that i know who play shooters(even the ones who are gun nuts) are docile people. games like CoD, L4D, TF2, GoW, ETC., let you do things you cant in real life. you get to experience a simulation of war(CoD,Battlefield,GoW) survival(L4D,Dead Rising, Dead Space, Killing Floor ETC.) or just plain killing others with a sort of humor attached to it.(TF2). yes, some people are agressive, and SURPRISE! some of them play video games. and, with all respect to you and the examples you chose, i bielive that they are wrong for your argument. your Tekken example: i used to play Street fighter at an arcade with buddies and random people there. and, like your example, things would get heated up, to the point where we DID end up in blows.now is that because of the video game? or our competitive nature? if we had been paintballing, playing football(the real kind, not handegg =P), or basketball, the outcome would have probably been the same. competitive people will be competitive.
as far as your second example, i turn to this:

now im not calling anyone a retard with this, but what i am trying to say is that it is not the persons fault(child or adult)for wanting to replicate something they saw, but in the case of the child, proper guidance should be provided to teach them that not everything that they see is real, nor should they try it.

TLDR?
1. people will be competititive, no matter what the activity
2. kids will be idiots that want to mimic every cool thing they see on tv/movies/games. but its up to the parents to teach them better.

Well your post is about as close to what I was saying as you can get. I feel like your TLDR sums up both our opinions nicely... I think I might edit it into my original post.

 

[Jegsimmons]

i dont think video games will cause a school shooting though, maby a shoulder punch if your already an aggressive person.

still the most violent media ever made me was when i went to see avatar....felt like takeing the whole theater out for clapping at that garbage.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

Of course they can, every time I play Black Ops I end up wanting to punch someone.

Miracle, you have the best venting system on the fucking planet (getting paid for making good music). Shut it, my friend

OT: You kind of make a good point, but conclude it wrong, imo. Here's how I look at it: Instead of blaming the MEDIUM for inciting you with feelings of competitive rage..........why not blame....you know, your competitive feelings?

Or blame is a bad word, because there is nothing inherently wrong with feeling competitive, but the fact is that that is a PURELY personal characteristic that is no way connected to the medium. A not-so-competitive guy could play CoD/Tekken/Super Meat Boy for hours and still not get angry because they just aren't that competitive as a person (case-in-point:me). Generally competitive people will seek out competitive games more actively (like a Jock to pigskin), whereas people like me, or say, Yahtzee would not. That doesn't mean we won't PLAY them....we just play them to scratch wholly different itches.

Works the same with Violence I think. Mentally unstable people play violent games because they secretly revel in it. We play violent games because it's just harmless fun.

An issue of personalities. NOT the medium itself.

 

[Bakuryukun]

I don't think anyone is really trying to deny the plausibility of a game temporarily increasing aggression levels. I DO however think it's far-fetched to believe that games directly lead to permanent increases in aggression to everyday life situations.

 

[manythings]

-snip-

And your point is? This thread seems to be about telling me something I already know in a really round about fashion.

 

[SoopaSte123]

-snip-

And your point is? This thread seems to be about telling me something I already know in a really round about fashion.

Then this thread isn't for you? Enjoy your day, good sir.

 

[CyprisVeil]

You know what else can cause aggression? Life. Oh snap!

 

[SoopaSte123]

OT: You kind of make a good point, but conclude it wrong, imo. Here's how I look at it: Instead of blaming the MEDIUM for inciting you with feelings of competitive rage..........why not blame....you know, your competitive feelings?

Or blame is a bad word, because there is nothing inherently wrong with feeling competitive, but the fact is that is a PURELY personal characteristic that is no way connected to the medium. A not-so-competitive guy could play CoD/Tekken/Super Meat Boy for hours and still not get angry because they just aren't that competitive as a person (case-in-point:me)

I don't think you can say PURELY personal characteristic, because some things are more likely to cause it than others.

For example, a man could get super angry and aggressive every time someone says the word "orange". THAT would be a good example of purely personal characteristic. If you slap someone in the face and they get angry, you can't blame that purely on their personality. That doesn't mean EVERYONE will get angry and aggressive if you slap them, its just the slapping is much more likely to cause someone anger and aggression.

Same kind of idea with video games, just less-extreme. That make sense?

 

[Gamblerjoe]

I think the real debate is whether video games cause violence above and beyond humans' natural desire to propagate violence. If a video game is just the catalyst that causes a maladjusted human being to lash out and hurt someone, how can it be blamed? Thats like stacking a bunch of chairs on top of each other next to a closed door, and blaming the next person who opens the door for knocking them over.

A lot of these arguments over what causes violent behavior in people are just a matter of shortsightedness and stupidity. People should own up to their personality flaws.