April 5 : ISU psychologists have recently released a book which has proved the harmful effects of violent video games on kids and youth.

The results published in the book are based on the findings of three different studies carried out by the psychologists recently.

ISU distinguished Professor of Psychology Craig Anderson, Assistant Professor of Psychology Douglas Gentile, and doctoral student Katherine Buckley have shared the results of three new studies in their book, “Violent Video Game Effects on Children and Adolescents”.

The first study found that even exposure to children’s violent video games had the same short-term effects on increasing aggressive behavior as the more graphic teen (T-rated) violent games.

Almost 161 9- to 12-year-olds, and 354 college students who participated in the study were randomly assigned to play either a violent or non-violent video game.

The participants subsequently played another computer game designed to measure aggressive behavior in which the punishment levels were set in the form of noise blasts to be delivered to another person participating in the study.

Additional information was also gathered on each participant’s history of violent behavior and previous violent media viewing habits.

The researchers found that participants who played the violent video games — even if they were children’s games — punished their opponents with significantly more high-noise blasts than those who played the non-violent games.

They also found that habitual exposure to violent media was associated with higher levels of recent violent behavior — with the newer interactive form of media violence found in video games more strongly related to violent behavior than exposure to non-interactive media violence found in television and movies.

“Even the children’s violent video games — which are more cartoonish and often show no blood — had the same size effect on children and college students as the much more graphic games have on college students,” said Gentile. “What seems to matter is whether the players are practicing intentional harm to another character in the game. That’s what increases immediate aggression — more than how graphic or gory the game is.”

The second study, which surveyed 189 high school students, found that participants who had more exposure to violent video games held more pro-violent attitudes, had more hostile personalities, were less forgiving, believed violence to be more typical, and behaved more aggressively in their everyday lives.

“We were surprised to find that exposure to violent video games was a better predictor of the students’ own violent behavior than their gender or their beliefs about violence,” said Anderson. “Although gender aggressive personality and beliefs about violence all predict aggressive and violent behavior, violent video game play still made an additional difference.

“We were also somewhat surprised that there was no apparent difference in the video game violence effect between boys and girls or adolescents with already aggressive attitudes,” he said.

The thied study which analyzed 430 third-, fourth- and fifth-graders, their peers, and their teachers twice during a five-month period in the school year, found that children who played more violent video games early in the school year changed to see the world in a more aggressive way, and became more verbally and physically aggressive later in the school year.

Higher aggression and lower pro-social behavior were in turn related to those children being more rejected by their peers.

“I was startled to find those changes in such a short amount of time,” said Gentile. “Children’s aggression in school did increase with greater exposure to violent video games, and this effect was big enough to be noticed by their teachers and peers within five months.”

The book’s final chapter gives “Helpful Advice for Parents and Other Caregivers on Choosing and Using Video Games.”

The authors say that providing clear, science-based information to parents and guardians about the harmful effects of exposure to violent video games is the first step to educate the people who are best able to use the information. (ANI)