Violent Video Games on Behavior
Introduction
Over the years, as technology significantly improved, the popularity of video games has also increased. Due to the improvement of technology, video games are now able to create more realistic scenes giving users a rich sense of experience.
However with that new capacity for experience has come a new capacity for showcasing violence in games; and this new capacity for witnessing violence has led to worries about how these video games are affecting children. Lachlan (2005) pointed out that, violent game characters have attributes that are likely to increase the extent to which some players perceive them as attractive and similar” (Lachlan. et al. 2005). When a player encounters a similar and attractive character in a violent game, he or she will use his or her real-life problems to vent violently in the virtual world.This behavior is often difficult to realize, and the unconscious becomes habitual over a long period of time so that when similar situations occur in real life, the player is more likely to choose the most familiar way to solve the problem, which is violence.
Debates
However, the debate on the impact of video games has been going on for several years. There are studies that point out how video games have positive impacts on players, such as improving one’s ability in social cognitive development. Markey (2020) points out that, “Another unique social advantage afforded by online gaming is anonymity, because it can offer those who are socially withdrawn an opportunity to interact. For instance, emotionally sensitive teens (i.e., those who are overly sensitive to the nonverbal and emotional cues of others) often turn to games to expand their social network and maintain their real-world friendships”(Markey et al. 2020). Social networks do give people an opportunity to expand their horizons. Many video games are designed to be multiplayer and from there players interact with one another, from any part of the world. Working together towards one reward with another human player teaches and lets players practice social skills that can generalize in real life.
Even with a few potential positive outcomes, the effect of violent video games on its players still biases towards the negative. Lead researcher Dr Vincent Matthews, a professor of radiology at the university, observed that after playing violent video games, ‘these adolescents had an increased activity in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal’. ”(Gross, 2007). The research has proven the change in brain activity among adolescents; there is no doubt that violent video games increase the activity in the amygdala and at the same time it decreases the activity in part that is responsible for self control.
Furthermore, violent video games have been shown to impact players in multiple ways, such as increasing aggressive behavior, desensitization to violent actions and concerns on players physical health condition. The level of impact on individuals is different due to their age, gender, and situation.
McLean et al. (2013) from the international Journal of Cyber behavior, Psychology and Learning has pointed out that, “Previous researchers have argued that children are less able to draw appropriate distinctions between aggression in fantasies and in reality, and that this may affect their ability to comprehend the appropriateness of the use of aggressive solutions portrayed in violent video games (Huesmann 1998; Smith & Donnerstein, 1988).” (McLean et al. 2013). While children do not have mature cognition on things, exposing them to various violent scenes will affect their recognition to violence. Therefore, their desensitization to violence or the likeliness of using violence to solve issues is definitely much higher. Additionally, the Siervo et al. (2013) study points out how violent video games are impacting physical health, “Watching television and playing video game being seated represent sedentary behaviors and increase the risk of weight gain and hypertension”(Siervo et al. 2013). This study finds that people playing violent video games appear to experience a high increase in diastolic BP, which would lead to cardiac stresser if continuously increasing.
This issue is significant as violence behavior is becoming increasingly important for countries’ future crime rate, economy, and society security. Therefore, online learning and the growing environment is concerned when so much violence is being shown to childrens and adolescents. Violent video games have a significant impact on the behavior of children and adolescents, which leads to increased aggression and desensitization to violence behavior.
Methodology
Lachlan et al.(2005) set out to see what risks violent video games could pose. To look for risk, the team gathered 10 minute samples of popular video games and reviewed them – looking for specific variables that could contribute to a gamer learning more aggressive behavior. To begin, the team needed to decide which games to study, and decided to focus their attention on popular gaming systems: Sony PlayStation, Nintendo, and Sega Dreamcast. They chose 20 games from each system – based on their sales rankings – ending with a total of 60 games (Lachlan et al. 2005). For each game, they collected the first 10 minutes of gameplay as a representative sample (600 minutes total) (Lachlan et al. 2005). In those 10 minutes, the researchers looked for and coded (categorized) certain characteristics that they saw. The first thing to code for was violent interactions, which turned out to be a total of 1389 violent instances coded (Lachlan et al. 2005). Next, they coded for demographic characteristics of the perpetrator of violence: things like species, age, gender, and apparent ethnicity. Each demographic variable is subcategorized to be more specific, such as species splitting off into human, animal or other. Next, they code if the perpetrator is either portrayed as a good character, a bad character, or a neutral character. Eventually, this category was changed to “liked” or “disliked” to place emphasis on the position that “good” characters have as role models. Moving to the next variable, the reason for violence was labeled as “justified” or “unjustified”. Lastly, the consequences of the violence were noted (things like visible injury, death, and bloodshed) and the severity categorized as none, mild, moderate, or extreme.
The McLean et al. (2013) study intended to find correlations between exposure to video games and its impact on attitude towards victims of crimes; specifically if exposure to violent video games make gamers less concerned or less sympathetic for victims of crime. The study was to be done using a questionnaire, with participants rating their concern for victims on a number scale. The initial questionnaire was based on the Victim Concern Scale (VCS), a 21 part questionnaire that asked participants to rate their concern for different types of victims. This first questionnaire was sent to a pilot school, where a small group of students and teachers took the questionnaire and offered feedback for the structure. Four questions were deleted because younger participants had difficulty understanding, and some vocabulary was changed. The input method was changed to be a Likert scale (typically a scale with two endpoints, like strongly disagree to strongly agree) rather than an input box (McLean. et al. 2013). Using the feedback, the team edited the new questionnaire to fit the younger participants of the study, rather than the young adult audience of the initial VCS questionnaire.
The researchers gathered a sample of 129 male participants and 76 female gamers participants, for a total of 206 people (McLean et al. 2013). These participants were sourced from four second-level schools (ages 11-18/high school) and one third-level school (college, university). There is a distinction made between genders because previous research suggested that violent video games affect genders differently. Then, there is a distinction for age. Like for gender, previous research suggests that video games have different effects on different ages – older children and younger children may have varied exposure levels and differing opinions towards violence.
The study began with the researchers sending letters to the schools, and later meeting with staff to give further details (McLean et al. 2013). The participants were asked by their teachers, in class, if they wished to participate, and the research team was there to provide brief details. The classes were mandatory for all students, so there is a reduced chance for accidental bias in which students will be participating (McLean. et al. 2013). If any students participating were under 16, they were given consent forms for their parents to sign. Participation in the study was anonymous, so each participant was assigned a unique ID number. If any participants wished to leave the study, they could ask the research team for withdrawal along with stating their ID number. Participants were informed and given consent forms to sign. No identifying information was required on the questionnaire, and participants were asked to answer as honestly as possible. They were told there will be three questionnaires to be done.
Once participants consented, they were given the questionnaire papers and an A4 envelope labeled with the participant’s number. A team member read out the instructions on the questionnaire and explained how to complete the questionnaire. Once any questions have been answered, participants could start the questionnaire. Once done, the participants were to put the paper inside the envelope and start the video game questionnaire. This video game questionnaire was intended to measure the video game exposure of each participant. Participants were asked about which consoles they used (Playstation, Xbox, Wii, mobile phone computer), how often they played these games the last week, and to list what their top 5 games were. The second question was answered with a scale between 1 and 7, with 1 being “rarely” and 7 being “often” (McLean et al. 2013). Then, participants were asked to scale how gory/violent the games were, and which genre they belong to. If the participant did not play video games, they could indicate that on the first page and place the paper into the envelope.
For each individual, their violence ratings for each game (5 games) was summed with how gory/violent they rated the game, then multiplied by how often they played the game that week. They do this for each game, then the scores are averaged to give that individual’s violent video game exposure score (McLean et al. 2013). A higher number means more exposure. This score can be used to determine if the participant has been exposed for at least one month prior to the study, and therefore considered long-term exposure.
After the video game questionnaire, participants can put their papers into the A4 envelope and hand it in. To end, the participants were given a “question and answer” session about video games and any resources or support they need for taking part in the research (McLean. et al. 2013). Participants were then reminded how to withdraw, they were given an information sheet and thanked for their time.
Siervo et al (2013) wanted to compare the effect of violent video games vs nonviolent video games or watching TV on the blood pressure and appetite of young normal weight men. Forty-eight normal weight, non-smoking, 18-30 year olds were gathered and then separated into 3 groups, 16 in each (Siervo et al. 2013). One group was instructed to play violent video games (gun shooting, combat, and Grand Theft Auto), the other was instructed to play competitive non-violent video games (football, FIFA 2008, EA Sports, Canada), and the last was instructed to watch non-violent television (situational comedy, Friends, Bright/ Kauffman/Crane Productions, USA) (Siervo et al. 2013). These activities lasted 1 hour and all ran on the Sony Playstation 2. At the beginning of the study, the researchers recorded blood pressure, and appetite perceptions (The latter was measured by the participants using a scale)(Siervo et al. 2013). Then, using univariate ANOVA, they noted the differences between the three groups. At the end of the hour, changes in blood pressure, stress and appetite perceptions (hunger, sense of fullness, what they wanted to eat) were measured or recorded (Siervo et al. 2013). Using the final results, the team could compare the values from before the hour to the ones after the hour, this time using three-way within-subject ANOVA.
Data Results
In the article attributes of violent character in popular video games it goes to show that there are several games and that the majority of the characters that were presented are violent actors as humans. This was compared by teenagers (sex, actions, race, and different types of perpetrators. These games as shown below are popular games among children and teenagers.
It could be said that males have a bigger population who play video games than females. Males who play video games are more than half the population which is 61% while females are only 16.3%. While going deep into the article it shows how 79% of violent acts are committed by males, compared to females it is only 21%.
While looking at the graphic it shows that there is a difference between Caucasian’s and Asians. It shows approximately how 12.5% of Asians are more likely to engage in extreme violence. While Caucasians are 5.8%. Overall it could be said that commuting causes more violent crimes than females, especially Asian males who have a higher percentage than Caucasians.
Violent games and attitudes towards victims of crime goes to show that there is a negative correlation between increased exposure to violent video games and an overall concern for victims. It could be said that those who play violent video games have a lower level of overall victim concern. In other words those who play violent games are not likely to commit violent crimes in real life. This goes to show that violent video games do not have an effect that may cause teenagers to go out and commit crimes on their own.
As stated before they chose several games such as. Sony PlayStation, Nintendo, and Sega Dreamcast. These were some popular games that they decided to experiment on. Due to these experiments they calculated whether or not due it cause a high blood pressure or if they consume more food. While it has been mentioned there have been cases in which it could be said that video games have increasingly increased people’s aggression. While video games cause aggression it can also cause desensitization to violence. Playing video games can also affect our blood pressure and appetite perception. As to blood pressure and heart rate it showed that video games do not have an effect on our heart rate but there is a high effect in blood pressure if there is a violent game involved.
There was a set of n=16 participants per group. There were about 3 groups. 1 group had violent games which included (gun shooting, combat, and Grand Theft Auto). The second group had non violent competitive games such as football, FIFA 2008, EA Sports, Canada. And the thirst group had non violent TV watching such as Friends, situational comedy, Bright/ Kauffman/ Crane Productions, USA. Both group 1 and group 3 were run on a Sony PlayStation 2
It could be said as shown above that blood pressure does cause high blood pressure to be exposed throughout a several amount of minutes while there is a violent game taking place.
While there are also studies about appetite in the graph below, the only results that were shown showed that there was a perception of hunger, desire for food, prospective eating and fullness.
It could be said that hunger, desire for food, and prospective eating scores are not significantly different between all the three groups. Those who played violent games preferred sweet foods while playing their violent games compared to the other two groups. There wasn’t a difference for preferences for either salty, savory, and fatty foods.
Discussions
Based on the results given, the data clearly support the idea that violent video games have a significant impact on the behavior of children and adolescents when it comes to aggression. (Lachlan et al. 2005), did a study to look at violent, aggressive characters in well-known video games and evaluate what threat they may present based on demographic similarities and character attractiveness, found that when just human characters were taken into account, boys committed 79% of all violent crimes while girls committed only 21%. Essentially, a range of violent video games’ aggressive role models shows physical aggressiveness in a way that raises the possibility that various players will learn violence in different ways. Most of these aggressive characters are adults. This does particularly raise worry in terms of potential aggressive responses in adolescents if they viewed resemblance as the most crucial component in determining likely to learn behavior. However, there are more and more adult players in video games who can be influenced by these harsh role models. In addition, this presents a different scenario because kids may look to adult figures as role models in some way. Young gamers may be drawn to these characters by thinking of them as being similar to themselves, but they may also get contextual cues about reasons that have been found to encourage aggressive behavior. Research question 1 of this study asks “What demographic characteristics are present in violent characters in American video games?” (Lachlan et al. 2005). Results reflect the kinds of aggressive characters that are frequently seen in video games. They imply that the majority of violent characters are people, offering approachable and believable aggressive role models that players can adopt behavior from, of course, subject to a variety of other factors. Looking at other possible factors such as ethnicity, since most of the violent role models in the games given are Caucasians, a picture of the people who are most in danger of picking up violence is beginning to take shape. There are a lot of white, male abusers who young game players may see similarities within American video games aimed at male teens. In another study, (McLean et al. 2013), a study that looked at how young people’s attitudes toward crime victims are impacted by playing violent video games, found that male participants who played more violent video games expressed significantly less worry about being at fault as well as victims that are male participants who did not play such games, suggesting a significant relationship between exposure to violent video games and reported victim concern. This suggests that while children do not have a mature cognition of things, exposing them to various violent scenes will affect their recognition of violence. High levels of culpability (and thus less concern) were seen when adolescents played more violent video games, which is consistent with the theory that over an extended period, exposure to violent video games causes people to develop certain notions of culpability and degrees of fault. As any negative impacts of being hurt or killed in the games are minimized, disregarded, or even rewarded, the researchers claim that the structure of games may lead to the development of specific attitudes toward victims. In this way, it is possible to demonstrate how video games have an adverse effect on how people react to victims and how these findings are closely related to those of the current study.
Since desensitization to violent actions or the likeliness of using violence to solve issues is definitely much higher than mentioned earlier, the studies showed that adolescents can develop the tendency to like a character based on many factors. There was a high presence of violent perpetrators which are children or adolescents who would give game players aggressive models that they could very easily identify with and be more likely to imitate (Lachlan et al. 2005). If they are to believe that perceived resemblance has a significant role in the possibility that aggressive behaviors would be imitated, then men perpetrators who are at least somewhat similar to male players are what are shown in video games. Regarding age, in Lavine’s study, the older participants expressed the greatest worry for general, culpable, and general victims, while the younger ones expressed the highest concern for vulnerable, general, and victims of property crimes. The research on bullying demonstrates age-related declines in victim-liking.
Although these studies show that violent video games can impact others with aggressiveness and desensitization, violent video games are also detrimental to children’s health. (Siervo et al. 2013), a study where they explore the significant effects that can affect our health shows that when compared to the TV-watching group, the two video game groups in this study displayed overall stronger behavioral and affective responses. The results reveal that violent games have more substantial effects than non-violent games, and they suggest that video games may pose new health risks beyond those associated with sedentary behavior. When playing violent video games while seated and with an unchanged heart rate, a larger cardiovascular load was elicited, most likely due to the stress response being activated. The study also showed diastolic blood pressure gradually increasing in the participants who played violent video games, which, if it continued, may be a significant cardiac stressor. In contrast to watching TV, participants in the non-violent video game group of this study felt more anxious and agitated while playing, whereas participants in the violent video game group felt more awake and attentive. As a result, it’s possible that the participants in the violent video game were more distracted, which impaired their capacity to comprehend and apply the physical sensations brought on by eating and resulted in diminished judgments of fullness when compared to the other two groups.
Although this paper discusses the impact of children playing violent video games on their health, and behavior, these studies also had limitations. (Lachlan et al. 2005) the study saw that It solely evaluated violent content and violent video game characters. At the point of data collection, the most recent marketing research was used to inform decisions about which games to include. As a result, with the introduction of new gaming hardware and software, the data might already be outdated. They also mentioned that only the opening 10 minutes of the game were evaluated. Video games typically get harder as the length of the game increases, and one common way to do this is to add more antagonistic characters or actions for the player to deal with. Although the coding system used in the current study gives a conservative estimate of the amount of violence in modern video games, the quantity, context, and characters of violence may alter as the game progresses. Additionally, little is known about how the rising popularity of online gaming may affect the availability of violent content. It’s possible that the heightened perception of rivalry and the use of interactive characters will make gaming more realistic. If this is the case, the empirical question of how competitive and social game features affect game content and its capacity to support social learning processes is then brought up. In the Lavine study, The scales that were used can be linked to the study’s primary limitation. The results may differ because the Victim Concern Scale that was used in the current study was altered for use with adolescents. It might be claimed that players purposely downgraded their ratings of these games or that repeated exposure to the material desensitized them to its bloody/gruesome nature. (Siervo et al. 2013) study limitations were that the intervention only lasted for one session. If continued playing over a period of many days or weeks may be linked to lasting changes in blood pressure and body weight, the study has to be replicated using longer protocols.
To conclude, violent video games have a significant impact on the behavior in children and adolescents, which can lead to negative effects such as aggressiveness, desensitization to violent behavior and also affect their physical health condition. As a result, these studies imply violent video games can negatively affect children in a way where it can increase aggressive behavior after playing. Exposure to such violent video games, as explained earlier, can desensitize children into real life violence causing them to be more like their character that they’ve chosen. This can lead into health problems whereas they have unhealthy eating habits which can contribute to their cardiovascular health and blood sugar as well. However, there is further research that needs to be done. With more research on adults on video games but also their behavior after playing video games, would give more information on adults vs. adolescents to analyze the difference in behavior and health. Future studies should investigate more than simply attitudes and look at the various components of attitudes. Also, future research on the content evaluation of violent video games should make an effort to determine and explain these potential causes of differences in game content.
Conclusion
The studies that are discussed provide significant evidence that violent video games have different impacts on the behavior of children and adolescents, such as increasing aggression and also be detrimental to their health. These studies suggest that the exposure to violent video games can lead to desensitization to violent actions. Furthermore the studies also pointed out that violent video games increase the likelihood of using violence to solve problems. Additionally the studies indicated that violent video games may lead to health risks such as increased cardiovascular and physical sensations being brought on by eating. While these studies do provide valuable results, they also do have limitations. Future research is needed to better understand the impact between violent video games relation to one behavior and health. Still, parents and educators need to be aware of the potential risks of violent video games and make sure that children and adolescents are not exposed too much.
Overall the idea of whether technology is good or bad for society is a complex topic. We can say that it has both positive and negative effects. Such as technology has led to task finishing easier and faster but it also comes with a lot of challenges like addiction and social isolation. However, the role of technology will continue to evolve and it is important to continuously make adjustments. Technology is just like any tool, it is the ways of how it is being used that determines if it’s beneficial or harmful. Therefore, it is important to promote a kind and healthy environment online. With that being done well enough, it can even prevent or decrease the violence and aggression in society.
References
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Lachlan, K. A., Smith, S. L., & Tamborini, R. (2005). Models for aggressive behavior: the attributes of violent characters in popular video games. Communication Studies, 56(4), 313+. https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A140142932/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=7506cc67
Markey, P. M., Ferguson, C. J., & Hopkins, L. I. (2020). Video Game Play: Myths and Benefits. American Journal of Play, 13(1), 87+. https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A666097603/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=28ba57c7
McLean, L., & Griffiths, M. D. (2013). Violent Video Games and Attitudes Towards Victims of Crime: An Empirical Study Among Youth. International Journal of Cyber Behavior, Psychology and Learning, 3(3). https://link-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/apps/doc/A425773212/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=5859e3f4
Siervo, M., et al. “Acute effects of violent video-game playing on blood pressure and appetite perception in normal-weight young men: a randomized controlled trial.” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol. 67, no. 12, 1 Dec. 2013, pp. 1322+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A354661212/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=de9e9da8. Accessed 23 May 2023.
