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Do Violent Games Boost Aggression? Study Adds Fire to Debate
Children who play violent video games may experience an increase in aggressive thoughts, which in turn, could boost their aggressive behavior, a controversial new study conducted in Singapore suggests.
In the study, children ages 8 to 17 who played a lot of violent video games showed an increase in aggressive behavior — such as hitting, shoving and pushing — three years later, compared to their behavior at the study start.
Meanwhile, those who decreased the amount of time they spent playing violent video games saw a decrease in aggressive behavior, the researchers said. [9 Weird Ways Kids Can Get Hurt]
The reason for the increase in aggressive behavior was that children who played a lot of violent video games had an increase in aggressive thoughts: for instance, they were more likely to interpret an ambiguous act, like someone bumping into them, as hostile, said study researcher Craig Anderson, a psychologist and professor at Iowa State University. They were also more likely to see aggressive behavior as an appropriate way to respond to provocation, Anderson said.
“Children and adolescents who play a lot of [violent] games change over time, they start to see aggressive solutions as being more reasonable,” ways to respond to conflict or frustration, Anderson told Live Science.
Source: http://truthisscary.com/2014/03/do-violent-games-boost-aggression-study-adds-fire-to-debate/
