[Please excuse me if there is another thread on this - if so, I missed it]
This leads me to the debate: in your opinon, are the author’s suggested conclusions correct? Can one go even further and conclude that watching violent media does not “cause” increased violence?
I’d say that the consistent pattern has been that if anything it reduces violence. And that seems to be the pattern for “vices in media” in general; increased availability of porn has coincided with a drop in sex crimes for example. Not an increase like anti-porn crusaders have always claimed porn causes, any more than violence in media has caused an increase in violence like the anti-violent-media types have always claimed.
I think the evidence is more mixed. I have little doubt the reporting of spree killings in the media has resulted in greater number of spree killings. Im also sure that beheadings in the news results in more “nutcases” going around beheading people.
What I do find interesting is the claim in the OP that more violence in the media causes less violence overall. Im fairly nuetral on the issue. Yet, if I were to argue for more rape in videogames im sure I would be condemned by the same people claiming videogame violence has reduced societal violence. Also, anti gamergaters should be calling for greater misogyny in games. I suspect I’ll be waiting for a long, long time before I see mainstream groups advocating more rape more misogyny and more racism from our media.
Surely this concept is nothing new and goes back over 2500 years? I remember studying the Greek plays of Sophocles et al over 30 years ago, and this letting-out of the emotions was part of my studies.
The increase in number of certain types of spree killings, the increased number of death spree nerds leaving youtube clips up beforehand, and the increased number of beheadings by Western Muslim nutters. Sorry, I dont need a study to cite what I see before me.
I could as easily say I don’t need any evidence to prove to me that the sun orbits the Earth; I can see it with my own eyes.
I’m not saying you’re wrong, mind. I’m just saying that what seems to be true isn’t always, and confirmation bias is a harsh mistress. So before I agree with you I’d like to see the evidence that spree killings have increased, and that the increase is due to media coverage.
Sure you do. Go on Wikipedia and look for lists of spree killers or school shooters. You’ll find references to both going back centuries. The first school shooting in the US happened in like 1750 or something. There were no “good old days,” this shit always happened.
To be honest it has always felt right to me as well. Here is a wordy article that has a few paragraphs covering the copycat effect of school shootings(about halfway down).
Correlation is not causation. They’re finding was “Results suggest that societal consumption of media violence** is not predictive **of increased societal violence rates.”
Is it an interesting study if it just says what all the older ones do? If it said gaming did lead to more violence, yeah, then it’d be interesting. I find it hard to believe this notion was ever taken seriously by anyone but pearl clutching moral guardians who thought rock and roll was the devil’s work and Harry Potter is teaching kids witchcraft. Given the rise of violent media over the last 50 years if it had an effect it’d be obvious in the crime stats.
If one wanted to start a moral panic I’d get the hyperbolic negative stereotypes right at least. Gaming doesn’t make you a thug or prone to psychotic breaks, it makes you a loser. Your children’s future is at stake! They could’ve cured cancer, but instead they skipped school to play CoD all day! Think of the WoW widows!
Fuzzy_Wuzzy does bring up an interesting point, though: if we take the study at face value should we lay off video games with lots of sexual violence? Is a game with rape as a goal no different from Mario Brothers?