14 DAY TRIAL // Most of the time, when the traditional media talks about games, it can only adopt one tonality, that of the concerned party pointing out the evil influences that videogames have on players and especially on kids. Now, there's a new meta study that points out that the previous reports which researched the link between violence and videogames have been, at best, flawed and, at worst, biased.
GamePolitics has received a heads up from two professors, Christopher Ferguson from Texas A&M International and John Kilburn, who have just published their work in the Journal of Pediatrics. They looked at most of the studies that had reported a clear connection between violence in the media and videogames and aggressive behavior. The shocking aspects that they have uncovered are that most of the studies have been badly conducted.
It seems that only 41% of the studies used “well validated aggression measures,” and, of course, the worst standardized studies showed the most pronounced links between violence in the media and violent behavior. The two professors believe that “There was no evidence that video games produce higher effects than other media, despite their interactive nature” and that “Overall, effects were negligible, and we conclude that media violence generally has little demonstrable effect on aggressive behavior.”
Also, the studies that were most cited by people saying that the link exists, the one made by Brad Bushman from the University of Michigan and that conducted by Craig Anderson from Iowa State, were found to be the ones most wanting in the quality department.
So, when talking about how that Call of Duty copy made someone take a gun and shoot some of his/her friends, mainstream media should take the time to actually look at some scientific data, instead of jumping on the bandwagon and pointing fingers at gaming just because it's new and different from what they are used to.