This is one of the reports that Art cited in his list of examples for why violent media has a negative effect on people.
Source: Video Games and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life , By: Craig A. Anderson, Karen E. Dill, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 0022-3514, April 1, 2000, Vol. 78, Issue 4
Quote:
Summary & Conclusions
Violent video games provide a forum for learning and practicing aggressive solutions to conflict situations. The effect of violent video games appears to be cognitive in nature. In the short term, playing a violent video game appears to affect aggression by priming aggressive thoughts. Longer-term effects are likely to be longer lasting as well, as the player learns and practices new aggression-related scripts that become more and more accessible for use when real-life conflict situations arise. If repeated exposure to violent video games does indeed lead to the creation and heightened accessibility of a variety of aggressive knowledge structures, thus effectively altering the person's basic personality structure, the consequent changes in everyday social interactions may also lead to consistent increases in aggressive affect. The active nature of the learning environment of the video game suggests that this medium is potentially more dangerous than the more heavily investigated TV and movie media. With the recent trend toward greater realism and more graphic violence in video games and the rising popularity of these games, consumers of violent video games (and parents of consumers) should be aware of these potential risks.
Recent events in the news, such as the link between teenage murderers in Colorado and violent video game play, have sparked public debate about video game violence effects. As the debate continues, video games are becoming more violent, more graphic, and more prevalent. As scientists, we should add new research to the currently small and imperfect literature on video game violence effects and clarify for society exactly what these risks entail. The General Affective Aggression Model has proved useful in organizing a wide array of research findings on human aggression and in generating testable propositions, including the present studies of video game violence. Additional short-term studies of the effects of violent video games are needed to further specify the characteristics of games and of game players that reduce and intensify the aggression-related outcomes. Longitudinal studies of exposure to violent video games are needed to test the proposition that such exposure can produce stable changes in personality, changes of the type seen in research on long-term exposure to other violent media.
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This was done in 2000, so the study itself isn't all too old. In essence the study says that people have aggressive thoughts when they play aggressive video games, which is not a surprise. Everything beyond that finding is conjecture.
The Senate paper that was posted also contains questionable allegations. In particular I open up this section pertaining to video games.
Source: http://judiciary.senate.gov/oldsite/mediavio.htm
Quote:
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Here, too, the concern of parents is justified. Studies indicate that violent video games have an effect on children similar to that of violent television and film. That is, prolonged exposure of children to violent video games increases the likelihood of aggression.(41) Some authorities go even further, concluding that the violent actions performed in playing video games are even more conducive to aggressive behavior. According to this view, the more often children practice fantasy acts of violence, the more likely they are to carry out real-world violent acts.(42) As Professor Brian Stonehill, creator of the media studies program at Pomona College in Claremont, California, states: "The technology is going from passive to active. The violence is no longer vicarious with interactive media. It's much more pernicious and worrisome." Another researcher characterizes such games as sophisticated simulators, similar to those used in military training.(43)
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Here are those footnotes:
41 Testimony of Senator Orrin G. Hatch before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, May 4, 1999.
No offense to Senator Hatch, but I do not see a scientific reference here. We need a primary source to validate this statement.
42 Mark Weitzman, Technology And Terror: Extremism On The Internet, NCJW Journal, Winter 1998/99, p. 24.
As far as I can tell, NCJW stands for National Council of Jewish Women. Once again we do not have a primary source for the study cited, and worse yet the journal in question is not a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
43 Stanger and Gridina, supra note 12.
This refers to another source: Jeffrey D. Stanger and Natalia Gridina, Media in the Home 1999, The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Report Series No. 5, 1999, p. 3.
Source: http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycent...ey/survey5.pdf
I must be blind, but nowhere in this paper did I find a reference to violent video games being similar to military simulators. Given that in 1999 the most advanced FPS game was Quake 3, I fail to see how this is a proper correlation. (Unless the rocket jump has become a valid military tactic, and nobody told me.)
Here's an interesting report that I can't access because my school hasn't renewed their subscription. At the very least the abstract is engaging.
Source: JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association; 4/21/2004, Vol. 291 Issue 15, p1822, 3p, 1c
Quote:
Abstract:
Presents a perspective on whether or not prolonged exposure to violent video games makes children more aggressive and violent. Comments from Juliet Van Eenwyk, who is studying the issue for the Washington State Department of Public Health in Seattle; Weakness of the current studies; Cut back funding and what it means for research; How youth violence has been decreasing despite the increase in the sales of video games; The reactions of various governmental bodies to the possibility that games do beget violent behavior; How St. Louis and Indianapolis passed laws aimed at preventing children from buying violent games; How the most significant correlation between hostility and aggressive behavior comes not from games but from parental involvement or lack thereof, in a child's life; Response from the game industry; Call for independent ratings.
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I've seen plenty of studies that seem to demonstrate a link between aggressive thoughts and violent video games, but nothing that shows the kind of link we need before we ban a form of entertainment. The fact that youth violence has DECREASED despite the fact that video games are more realistic, more prevalent, and more popular (as stated in the abstract above) is extremely interesting. How can video games have a significant negative impact if we're seeing less violence?
Violent video games are a form of entertainment that appeals to a specific group of people. Some of those people may be imbalanced, and violent video games may either provide them with an escape or foster aggressive thoughts that lead to violent behavior. The problem is that we don't know, and the vast majority of the people out there who play games are normal and well-adjusted individuals.
The Hitman series are not realistic in any sense of the word. You do not see bald superhuman assassins wander around with bar codes on the back of their neck. Hitmen do not evade detection simply by changing their clothes. And anyone who manages to fire as accurately as Agent 47 does with akimbo 1911's is definitely not of this world.
So let's all step back, relax, and go play Doom for a few hours.