American Pop Culture, Violence and Video Games
...nce bringing up the tragedy in Columbine, Colorado. By the fourth sentence, the authors have implicated video games as a possible factor, citing anecdotal evidence that the perpetrators liked the "bloody, shoot-‘em up video game, Doom…” As evidence that Harris and Klebold were "playing out their game," the authors point out that, for a class project, they made a videotape that was similar to the scenario they had constructed within the game, in which they "dressed in trench coats, carried guns, and killed school athletes." As everyone now knows, they then acted out the events on the videotape in real life. Apparently, the authors want the reader to believe that this behavior stemmed from a desire to act out the video game. This is certainly one possible explanation. A more plausible one, however, is that Harris and Klebold were using increasingly more realistic methods to act out their homicidal tendencies and, more specifically, their hatred of athletes. First there was the customization of the video game, then there was the video tape, and finally the massacre itself. Before we dive into the studies, let's run through a brief primer on correlation versus causation. A correlation is established when research reveals that one characteristic or tendency is found to occur with another characteristic or tendency. Suppose you undertake a study where you poll a group of students about their study habits, then compare that data to their GPA's. You might find that students who study for longer of time generally have higher grades than those who study for less time. Your study reveals a correlation between study time and grades. Students who study more tend to get higher grades than those who do not. It is important to realize, however, all you've really established here is that the two characteristics tend to be found together. You cannot make any reliable inferences as to whether the presence of one characteristic causes the other characteristic to occur. Such a connection, called causation, can only be established through clinical experimentation. A celebrated example of these principles is the ice cream-crime connection. Studies have shown that the crime rate typically increases in the summer months. Studies have also shown that the consumption of ice cream increases in the summer months. A study comparing ice cream consumption and crime rate might very well reveal that the two are correlated; the more ice cream consumed, the higher the crime rate tends to be. Having said that, it obviously cannot be inferred that eating ice cream causes people to commit more crime; nor can it be established that doing crime causes people to crave ice cream. Such statements are an attempt at establishing causation, and the lunacy of such statements drives home the point, correlation does not equal causation. Before discussing their own results, the authors cite several other studies that have explored the video game-aggression link on a correlational level. Three of the studies showed a correlation; one did not. The authors note, however, that none of these studies distinguished between a violent and non-violent video game. To quote the article, "thus, none test the hypothesis that violent video games are uniquely associated with increased aggression.” The authors also cover the existing experimental studies in this area. A few brief quotes: The extant experimental studies of video games and aggression have yielded weak evidence also . . . Two additional ex...