Violent Media & Increased Aggression: A Tale Of Two Paradigms

As a former academic researcher, let me be the first to say that, in general, studies can be designed to find whatever results the granting body desires. Video games and obesity? Oh yes. Video games and violence? You bet. We’ve got moral, familial, and political crusaders all out to prove the evils of video games based on studies showing their negative effects. In the counter camp, we’ve got studies showing increased visual acuity, better hand-eye coordination, and the potential for “serious games” to improve learning for everyone from elementary school children to medical professionals. It’s a back and forth ping pong match.

You may be interested to know that video games are not the only thing linked to aggressive behaviours. A study out of Brigham Young University is now showing that violent scripture found in religious texts such as the Bible, can also be correlated with increased aggression in its readers. Much like gamers who play violent games, readers exposed to violent passages in the Bible upped their aggressive tendencies. The BYU lead was careful to rationalize his own findings however, stating that

We’re not saying that just in and of itself violent media is uniformly bad but oftentimes there is no redeeming context to it. If one reads the scriptures with an understanding of context, both historical as well as with a (desire) to hear what God is trying to teach us, you can read it in a different way.

Basically ‘properly’ interpreting violent scripture and taking the ‘proper’ lessons from it redeems the necessity of the violence itself. Other violent media, likely games, films, and music, lack the righteous context to be considered salvation.

Edit: After I wrote this little bitty, I read yet another game-oriented study…people who play racing games are more prone to speeding. Oh the possibilities are endless.

Via | Joystiq