Study: No links between violent video games and youth violence

A new long-term study into violent media in the US could help settle the long-standing argument of whether or not violent films and video games are to blame for violence in society.

Using data from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to estimate the violent content of popular games from 1996 to 2011, a group led by psychologist Christopher Ferguson found no links between violent games and behaviour, putting significant doubt over previous studies that suggested the two were related.

"Youth violence dropped precipitously," during the period, despite there being "very high levels of media violence in society" at the time.

"Media narrative surrounding violent video games and youth violence may be due to the ‘limited amount of resources and attention’ that society can devote to ‘the problem of reducing crime," Ferguson explained.

Ferguson not only found that there was no link between violent media and behaviour but also challenged the methodology of other research in the field , saying they used “less aggressive outcomes ranging from filling in the missing letters of words through delivering non-painful noise bursts to a consenting opponent.”

Source: Does Media Violence Predict Societal Violence? (via The Independent)