Yesterday we learned that teenagers who watch high levels of promiscuity on television are themselves more likely to “get pregnant or get a partner pregnant.” Today, we discover that children who play violent video games are more likely to become aggressive and violent:
A new study — presented last month at the inaugural seminar sponsored by Iowa State University’s Center for the Study of Violence — showed effects of violent video games on aggression over a 3-6 month period in children from Japan as well as the United States . . . .It found that exposure to violent video games was a causal risk factor for aggression and violence in those children.
“Basically what we found was that in all three samples, a lot of violent video game play early in a school year leads to higher levels of aggression during the school year, as measured later in the school year — even after you control for how aggressive the kids were at the beginning of the year,” said Anderson, who was recently elected president-elect for the International Society for Research on Aggression (IRSA).
I’m glad we have researchers around to sort out all of these complex causes and effects.
