The Effects of Violent Video Games: An Evidence-Based Essay

This essay investigates the controversial relationship between violent video games and aggressive behavior. It begins by defining video game violence and then explores evidence from various studies, including longitudinal and meta-analytic reviews. The essay analyzes research from sources like the American Psychological Association (APA) and studies by Krahé and Möller, Ferguson et al., Anderson et al., and Kühn et al. The analysis considers both supporting and opposing viewpoints, examining factors such as trait aggression, family involvement, and cultural differences. The essay concludes that a concrete causal link between violent video games and aggressive behavior remains unestablished, emphasizing the complexity of the issue and the influence of multiple factors.

Running head: EVIDENCE REGARDING VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE
EVIDENCE REGARDING VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE
Name of the student
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EVIDENCE REGARDING VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE
Introduction
The essay aims to analyze the affect of violent video games on the behavior of those
playing these games. The essay will first explain the meaning of video game violence followed
by the evidences that support this notion and those that oppose it as well. The analysis is
important because cases of violent behaviors such as mass shootings in schools and other places
have seen a sharp in the last few years. Many of these incidences have been related to video
game violence. It is thus important to analyze whether video games do cause violent or
aggressive behavior. The essay will make use of four evidences to find the link between violent
video games and aggressive behavior.
Discussion
Video game violence refers to the aggressive behavior demonstrated by players
especially young adults after being exposed to violent video games. Video games are considered
violent when these involve players to commit murders and other such crimes just for
entertainment purpose. With the introduction of online multiplayer games and the latest Virtual
Reality (VR) games, the level of violent video games has reached a new height. However, it
would be controversial to state that violent video games are the only reason behind aggressive
and violent behavior. Research on violent video games and aggression has focused on the change
in behavior of young people after playing video games. Much of the research suggests
contradicting claims regarding the link between violent video games and aggressive behavior.
According to the American Psychological Association (APA), “the arrival of a new
generation of ultraviolent video games beginning in the early 1990s and continuing unabated to
the present resulted in large numbers of children and youth participating in entertainment

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EVIDENCE REGARDING VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE
violence” (Apa.org, 2019). While some studies have found significant effects of video game
violence on aggressive behavior, other studies have yielded insignificants links to video game
violence and aggressive behavior.
Krahé and Möller (2010) conducted a longitudinal study on 1237 German high school
students coming from seventh and eighth grade to find the correlation between media violence
and aggressive behavior. The authors conducted cross-lagged panel analysis and reverse analysis
to find the results. While the cross-lagged panel analysis found significant relation between video
game violence, “higher physical aggression, and lower empathy”, the reverse paths showed no
links between aggression and media violence (Krahé & Möller, 2010). The results also indicated
that non-violent video games had no significant influence on the students. The authors concluded
that most of the longitudinal studies have focused on aggressive behavior as the only outcome of
media violence whereas other factors have not been considered that include lowered empathy
and depression. In another study, Ferguson et al. (2014) found that trait aggression, stress,
parental involvement, participation in extracurricular activities and family support were more
influential in the aggressive behavior of young adolescents than violent video games. The
authors conducted their study on 1254 seventh and eighth grade students. The results revealed
that exposure to violent video games were not “predictive of delinquency and bullying”. On the
contrary, Anderson et al. (2010) performed a meta-analytic review of the effects of video game
violence on aggressive behavior, aggressive effect and cognition, physiological arousal,
prosocial behavior and desensitization or empathy. They performed the review on six unique
features including longitudinal studies for all the outcomes and cross-cultural comparisons
amongst others. Their results indicated that exposure to violent video games “is a causal risk
factor for increased aggressive behavior, aggressive affect and cognition and reduced empathy

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EVIDENCE REGARDING VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE
and prosocial behavior”. The different sensitivity analyses revealed that the effects are robust.
The study by Kühn et al. (2018) however reveals otherwise. The study they conducted was a
longitudinal intervention study with a period of two months. Ninety participants were randomly
selected for the study that was then exposed to both violent and non-violent video games such as
Grand Theft Auto V and The Sims 3. The study found no significant change in the behaviors of
the participants who were mostly female.
The strengths of these studies relied on the use of empirical and secondary analysis both.
However, several weaknesses could also be found in these studies. In the first longitudinal study,
there was no issue regarding the sample size but to generalize the negative effects of violent
video games by conducting study on seventh and eighth grade German high-school students
reveals weakness. The second study found no effect of violent video games on the behavior on
the students of the same grades as the first study. In both the studies, the sample size was large
but the results indicated two opposing things. In the third study, a meta-analytic review of
different studies on violent video games and aggressive behavior, found causal link to video
game violence and aggressive behavior. However, the theory-based predictions were generated
using cultural differences between Japan and other western countries. This weakens the study
because other eastern countries were not included. The fourth study, a longitudinal intervention
study conducted a study on just 90 randomly invited participants over a period of two months. In
this study, the sample size is its biggest weakness because one could not assume that if the
violent video games did not affect the 90 participants, it would not affect others as well.
Therefore, it could be stated that the studies analyzed in the essay do not provide clear
answer to the question whether video game violence lead to aggressive behavior or not.

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EVIDENCE REGARDING VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE
As found in the study by Ferguson et al. (2014), some people are at risk of aggressive behavior
due to violent video games. The factors that make these individuals more at risk include
psychological factors, family, peer pressure and so on.
One could not assume that violent video games would make someone violent or
aggressive and cause her or him to kill for real. As the reviewed research reveal, several other
factors are at work in making a person aggressive.
Conclusion
Therefore, it needs to be stated that the causal relation between violent video games and
aggressive behavior has not yet been established concretely.

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EVIDENCE REGARDING VIDEO GAME VIOLENCE
Reference list:
Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, N., Swing, E. L., Bushman, B. J., Sakamoto, A., ... &
Saleem, M. (2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial
behavior in Eastern and Western countries: A meta-analytic review. Psychological
bulletin, 136(2), 151.
Apa.org. (2019). Violent Video Games: Myths, Facts, and Unanswered Questions. Retrieved
from https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2003/10/anderson
Ferguson, C. J., Olson, C. K., Kutner, L. A., & Warner, D. E. (2014). Violent video games,
catharsis seeking, bullying, and delinquency: A multivariate analysis of effects. Crime &
Delinquency, 60(5), 764-784.
Krahé, B., & Möller, I. (2010). Longitudinal effects of media violence on aggression and
empathy among German adolescents. Journal of Applied Developmental
Psychology, 31(5), 401-409.
Kühn, S., Kugler, D. T., Schmalen, K., Weichenberger, M., Witt, C., & Gallinat, J. (2018). Does
playing violent video games cause aggression? A longitudinal intervention
study. Molecular psychiatry, 1.