A new review of 130 studies "strongly suggests" playing violent video games increases aggressive thoughts and behavior and decreases empathy.
The
results hold "regardless of research design, gender, age or culture,"
says lead researcher Craig Anderson, who directs the Center for the
Study of Violence at Iowa State University in Ames.
His team did
a statistical analysis of studies on more than 130,000 gamers from
elementary school age to college in the USA, Europe and Japan. It is
published today in Psychological Bulletin, a journal of the American
Psychological Association.
Anderson says his team "never said
it's a huge effect. But if you look at known risk factors for the
development of aggression and violence, some are bigger than media
violence and some are smaller.
"If you have a child with no
other risk factors for aggression and violence and if you allow them to
suddenly start playing video games five hours to 10 hours a week,
they're not going to become a school shooter. One risk factor doesn't
do it by itself."
But he notes that video game violence is "the
only causal risk factor that is relatively easy for parents to do
something about."
Source: USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-03-01-1Avideogames01_ST_N.htm