Yes, video games can cause aggression

[MaxwellEdison]

Quite a big difference between "competition made me irritable and I lashed out at my sister" and "Child shoots up school due to Doom"

No one denies that video games can make you pissed and violent in the same way that anything can. What we deny is that games have some unique ability to turn children into violent psychopaths when away from the competition.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

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I made the first point because you would be surprised at how many people don't know the difference between the two. No offense intended. This is a claim that is currently being tested. Meaning that idle speculation serves no purpose. It is like with people who claim a same sex household can't raise children properly. I have citable evidence to the contrary. Their claim is moot until they find evidence to support their claim. Sorry, I just take these types of discussions very seriously.

No offense taken, and I'm sorry if I came off a bit harsh myself. It is indeed a serious matter, so I understand your conviction.

I also understand what you're saying. Testimony without evidence won't get anywhere in serious debate. That said, I think a lot of things in life can be understood without being completely proven if you use logic, and my own personal experiences help explain my logic sometimes. So I guess that was the point of my thread: to try to spread understanding and not try to prove anything.

Ok then. I apologize for the confusion. Mr. Buzzkillington away!

 

[spartan231490]

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You're first point is good, but I don't really agree with your second point. Kids being "violent" in the way you described, would happen in a vacuum, completely independent of violent media. Kids fight, that's just the way it goes, it's part of playing. Cops and robbers, sword fights, those stupid inflatable boxing glove things. I'm pretty sure kids(especially boys) have played some kind of violent competitive game since the beginning of time. Cavemen children probably had "spear fights." I don't think you can blame that on violent media, i think that is simply a product of human nature.

Fair point. It seems common sense. But if you're doing studies in which you have a kid alone or a kid that gets to play a fun video game, which would you think would be classified as more aggressive? That's why I think the point needs to be made. Kids get wound up over things.

I would say that's only because the kid is alone. If you put two young boys in a room with two sticks, then two other young boys in a room with two cap guns, and still two other young boys in a room with CoD, who do you think is going to be most aggressive. My bet is on the two kids with sticks.

 

[SoopaSte123]

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Fair point. It seems common sense. But if you're doing studies in which you have a kid alone or a kid that gets to play a fun video game, which would you think would be classified as more aggressive? That's why I think the point needs to be made. Kids get wound up over things.

I would say that's only because the kid is alone. If you put two young boys in a room with two sticks, then two other young boys in a room with two cap guns, and still two other young boys in a room with CoD, who do you think is going to be most aggressive. My bet is on the two kids with sticks.

I think we need to do this experiment because I believe you correct

 

[thejackyl]

Video games cause aggression, not violence. There is a difference. But, so does... well, EVERYTHING ELSE (competitive at least).

Playing sports makes me aggressive, once the adrenaline starts pumping. But the thing is, I don't try to hurt the other players, I try to win. After the game is over, and the adrenaline works its way out, I'm back to normal.

Probably the worst thing I have done when getting mad at a video game is smash my $5 headset, by tearing it off my head, and either squeezing it till it snapped, or thrown it at a wall.

CoD pisses me off. I'm not bad at it, per se, but the amount of times I get killed by bullshit gets annoying. I once spent 10 minutes of a match getting grenade spammed from the spawn point. And the hackers... I gave up of CoD multiplayer since MW2.

MMO PvP pisses me off too. I don't mind arena, and I don't mind battlegrounds. But when I'm questing in a low level area, and some asshat max level decides to corpse camp me for 2 hours it gets irritating. (PvP realms are the bane of MMOs for me)

 

[Biodeamon]

what? no! bull****! videogames certainly do not make me aggressive! if you say that agian i will beat you!

oops, looks like i proved your argument......

ha ha, but no. videogames don't cause aggression. if that were the case then porn would make everybody massive perverts, and sudoku would make people massive geniuses.

 

[Hagi]

Also consider this:

At some point during your life you're going to get angry, you're going to get pissed off, you're going to get very aggressive.

Would you rather go into that situation having never encountered that anger during your childhood?
Or having experienced aggression and anger with, hopefully, a responsible parent nearby to tell you "Oih! Behave yourself! Deep breath first!" after giving you a smack on the head.

If we'd start banning stuff that causes aggression there won't be much left. Much better to learn how to deal with it. Give your kids a violent (not too violent) video game, let them get angry, smack them on the head and then teach them to deal with that anger.

 

[Exosus]

All these arguments are based on the flawed premise that aggression is inherently bad. Aggression, when tempered with intellect, is a predictor of success. Pussy children grow up to be janitors. Children who fuck shit up grow up to run the shit they would otherwise have fucked up.

 

[AnOriginalConcept]

Anecdotal evidence can NOT be used to establish a correlation.

Correlation does NOT imply causation.

If you want to make a claim like this, do a controlled study with a decent sample size.

 

[Zack1501]

violent videogames don't make kids violent. violent kids just like violent videogames.

 

[razor343]

No, No they can't. It's the fault of humans and the faulty genetic structure of certain people that causes aggression. Hell, aggression is our primal instinct. Video Games are really not different at all from Books, TV or Music. All of these things can be unintentionally responsible for making the fucked up people go from resting mode to manslaughter mode.

 

[Brodie Jenkins]

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.

Life causes aggression, simple as that

 

[Comieman]

Dear sir, I love you for understanding the issue.

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

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I dunno. If you think about it, the response to getting slapped has many crucial variables (like say, who slapped me? why?). One of those is the inherent temper of the slappee. I certainly know people I would NEVER EVER slap cause they'd probably snap....my neck. And that itself IS a personal characteristic.

Same goes for competitiveness, frustration.etc. There are just SO many variables, and it's wrong imo, to look at one of the triggers (the fact that he is a gamer) and blame just THAT one aspect, ignoring all the other variables like personality, psyche, society, personal situation, socio-economic situation, Entertainment habits (as clues, not as causes), I could go on.etc.

It's especially bad when psychiatrists make those fucking "Games make kids rapists" derp statements, because they are supposed to be the ones who understand and dissect this shit! Not us Forum goers!

But would you say NOTHING triggers aggression except personality, then? Because somewhere there will always be someone who won't be affected by it. If not, where would you draw the line? 90% of the people are affected? 80%?

Certain things are more likely to cause aggressive behavior than others. Competition is one, and video games at the very least has that. So do many other things, but that's my point. We shouldn't be denying that it causes aggressive behavior, but we should realize many things do naturally and are NOT dangerous and video games are one of them.

Uhh, you misunderstood, I'm afraid. Personality CAN'T a potential trigger for violence. A trigger HAS to be an outside influence. In that sense, yeah games can trigger violent actions.
But as you said, so can many MANY other things! Like losing a loved one; or getting bullied; or being in depression; or not having a bite to eat in 3 weeks; or listening to metal music; or watching a heist movie; or, hell, even being persuaded to crime by a close friend .etc.etc. These are all potent triggers.

I'm just saying that the external trigger should NOT be the thing that takes all the blame. In other words Video games might in certain cases can trigger violence, sure.

But they don't cause violence. Forced Isolation causes violence. Ostracism causes violence. Poverty causes violence. Violence (directly affecting real people) causes violence. Extremist faith causes violence. Intolerance causes violence. Media does NOT cause violence.

Do you get me?

 

[Dastardly]

tl;dr Video games can cause violent behavior just like tv, movies, and competitive sports AND they're as equally emotionally harmless.

I think the only problem people tend to have with this is use of the word "cause." It insists that the violent behavior is a direct result of the exposure to the video game.

Studies have shown that exposure to violent video games can desensitize a person to violent images. In that same study, they tried to link it to aggressive behavior, but they did not adequately establish a definition of "aggressive," or any sort of test that could objectively measure it.

It can still be contested that people will only mimic the violent/aggressive behavior in video games if there are also outside factors contributing to that. People don't hit folks for no reason. But if they're already angry, or already have poor impulse control, and they see a behavior modeled? Yeah, they might be more likely to imitate it. But the model isn't causing them to act out--it's just influencing the form that "acting out" takes.

 

[FalloutJack]

No, PEOPLE cause aggression. You decide to do things.

 

[Gudrests]

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

From what I heard its only because your bad at it....JUST WHAT I HEARD!!!

Can we say music does the same thing, every time I try and play a guitar I want to smash it...but that's only because it truly looks fun.

 

[Sylveria]

So Lesson 1: Competition can cause aggression. Most video games have competition of some sort, so they can cause aggression, but they do not cause aggression simply for being video games.

Sound logic. Paint with a broad enough brush and you can cover everything. What about single player games? If you view that as competition against the game, wouldn't the resulting anger be directed toward the cartridge instead of other people? Here's a question.. perhaps you were just an angry, violent kid who didn't like to lose?

Case 2: As a young kid ... watched batman ... playing batman ... I smacked my sister in the stomach. She went crying to my mother and got in trouble.

So Lesson 2: Being exposed to ANY sort of violent entertainment will tend to evoke aggressive tendencies.

Again, painting with a broad brush. Did you ever consider you were just a jerk as a kid cause the evidence is piling up? You made the conscious choice to hit your sister in the stomach for "dramatic effect". I was always told as a kid to keep my hands to myself and thus "pretending" meant you don't touch someone else and you sure don't hit them.

Any time an "X can cause people to Y" argument comes up, every human who reads it should be insulted. Some twit is telling you that you have no self control, you're a slave to the media or whatever, and you are so primitive that your tiny monkey brain must be affected by what you see so you WILL act upon it. Sorry, but I do not buy into that. People make the choice to cross that line. It's not the game, or the movie, or even the "competition", or the whatever someone can throw the blame on stimulating them into a rage where they can't help it. Self control and choice exist.

That word "Can" is a qualifier. If media/competition/etc caused or stimulated aggression to the point one claims a direct cause and effect relationship, every kid, no, every person, who plays a violent game or sees a violent film would act violently every single time. But no, people say "can" cause, because they can't say "does" or "will", something in an absolute, they have to speak conditionally. I could sit here and say "Me clapping my hands can cause people's heads to explode." Can't prove me wrong. I will sit and clap all day and if no one's head pops, well, it just didn't happen this time. All I need is 1 person at any point in time, at any place in the world, to have their head pop like a balloon following my hands smacking together and my claim is justified. Is it a strong justification? Of course not, but I have my case to point at.

Actual lessons here: 1. People choose to do things. 2. The OP was a mean kid. 3. Most parents don't completely suck at parenting. 4. Any claim is possible if you don't care how weak your evidence is.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

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

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Lol... it is certainly cathartic