Is there Evidence of Greater Aggressive Behavior in Youth Ages 11-18
who play Violent Video Games?
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments to Dr. Anne Su of Cleveland state university who
served as an advisor on this paper.
Atticus Kenny
INTRODUCTION
Over the last 3 decades it has been observed that violence
among youth has been increasing with the rise of bullying both
in school and online with 1 in 3 school children reporting being
bullied in some way. Furthermore, We are in a day of age where
there is a school or mass shooting every couple of months a
tragic phenomenon that has come into existence the last couple
decades. This rise in aggression has been going on around the
same time that violent video games have risen in popularity in
our society. It is recorded by Harvard health that 97% of
American teens play video games and 66% play video games that
include violence. Now the question of how these video games
affect the behavior of the youth remains. This research paper is
seeking to answer the question if violent video game play among
middle to high school ages kids (11-18) is associated with
aggressive behavior. The paper will provide scientific data and
experimental support to show how there is an association
between violent video games and acts of aggression.
Understanding how and how much violent video games
influences youths behavior can help us understand the types of
measures need to reduce aggression in our society.
RESULTS
• Study 1:For males in study of M rated video game
playing youth 51% of them had been in a physical
fight, 60 % had hit or beat up someone while only 28%
of player who didn’t play M rated games had been in a
physical fight and 39% had hit or beat up
someone(Kutner and Olsen. 2008). For females 40% of
M rated games had been in a physical fight and 49%
hit or beat up someone while only 14% of non M rated
video game playing female children had been in a
physical fight and 29% had hit or beat up someone.
• Study 2: After playing Violent video games for 20
minutes in comparison to those who played non
violent video games for 20minutes while viewing
actual footage of violence those who played violent
games had lower heart rates and Galvanic Skin
response(Anderson et al.2004)
• Study 3: It was found that players who played Doom a
“shoot them up” game when compared to Mahjongg
a puzzle game it was found that those playing the
game doom automatically associated them selves with
aggression. Scores were calculated by subtracting the
mean latency Self=peaceful from Self= Aggressive
critical IAT Block thus the less negative the score the
more the associate them selves with aggression.
Figure 1: Percentage of 7th and 8th grade boys and girls displaying aggressive
behavior is greater in those that play M-rated games. From Kutner and Olsen
(2008)
Figure 3: Exposure to violent video games increases self-association with aggression.
(Uhlmann and Swanson, 2003)
CONCLUSIONS The research conducted on the effect of
violent video games on the behavior of youth that play them has shown
that there is a relationship. By looking at the observation study of
Kunter and Olsen (2008) it shows that those kids who play mature and
violent video games are more likely to be involved physical fight and
bullying. The work of Anderson and his co-workers show how playing
violent video games desensitizes the players to violence in real life and
explores the psychological effects of playing these games. Uhlmann and
Swanson showed how players of violent video games more readily
associate themselves with aggression even after just 20 minutes of game
play. This research shows that awareness needs to increase and action
needs to be taken to reduce the acceptance and game play in the youth.
Figure 2: After 20 minutes of playing Violent video games galvanic skin response
was lower and heart rate was higher while viewing real violent footage in
comparison to those who played a non-violent game. (Anderson et al. 2006)
FUTURE WORK
Now that research has confirmed that violent video games
is associated with aggressive behavior the next step in research
should be how influential is this compared to other influences
on the lives of youth. This work is important because it can show
what factors are the most influential on the behavior of the
youth and thus can identify what needs to be focused on.
Furthermore, Research can be conducted about different games
too see if certain games can cause different levels of aggression.
This type of research can help reduce violence and bullying in
our youth.
References
Anderson, C. a, & Warburton, W. a. (2012). The impact of violent video games : An
overview. Growing Up Fast and Furious, 1999(October), 56–84. Retrieved from
http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/170731965
A.Anderson (2004). An Update on the effect of Playing Violent video games. Journal
of Adolesence, 27(1),113-122
Kunter & Olsen,(2008). Grand theift childhood: The surprising truth about violent
video games and what parents can do.
Uhlmann, E., & Swanson, J. (2004). Exposure to violent video games increases automatic
aggressiveness. Journal of Adolescence, 27(1), 41–52.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2003.10.004
Violent video games and young people (2010), Harvard mental health letter. Retrieved from:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/violent-video-games-and-young-people
METHODS
There are many ethical challenges when testing the effects of violent video
games on the action of youth that play them and these challenges are handled by
studying aggression vs violence. Violence cannot be ethically induced in a laboratory
because violence is aggressive behavior with intent to cause extreme harm to others
(Anderson, 2012).This project will explore 3 different experimental methods for
measuring aggression.
Study 1:Observational study of over 1,000 7
th
and 8
th
graders (Kutner and Olsen 2008).
Study 2: Craig A. Anderson and his coworkers in et al. (2006) measured heart rate and
Galvanic skin response to real footage of violent actions after playing violent and
nonviolent video games.
Study 3:Measured using an implicit Association tests to see how people associated
them selves with aggression before and after playing violent and non violent video
games (Uhlmann and Swanson. 2004).
