Video Game Controversies

Video Game Controversies

Controversies over video games center on controversial content of video games and effects that video games have on behavior.

Video games have been studied for links to addiction and aggression. Before this meta-analyses were conflicting. A 2001 study found that exposure to violent video games correlates with at least a temporary increase in aggression. A decrease in prosocial behavior (caring about the welfare and rights of others) was also noted. Another 2001 meta-analysis using similar methods and a more recent 2009 study focusing specifically on serious aggressive behavior concluded that video game violence is not related to serious aggressive behavior in real life. Many potential positive effects have been proposed. Recent research has suggested that some violent video games may actually have a prosocial effect in some contexts, for example, team play.

It has been argued there is generally a lack of quality studies which can be relied upon and that the video game industry has become an easy target for the media to blame for many modern day problems. The most recent large scale meta-analysis, examining 130 studies with over 130,000 subjects worldwide, concluded that exposure to violent video games causes both short term and long term aggression in players and decreases empathy and prosocial behavior. However, this meta-analysis was severely criticized in the same issue of the same journal for a number of methodological flaws, including failure to distinguish clinically valid from unstandardized aggression measures and for failing to solicit studies from researchers who have questioned whether causal links exist, thus biasing the sample of included studies.