Violent Games and Violent Acts: No Causal Link

Video games are more popular than ever – especially violent video games. Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty and Battlefield are just three examples. But with the rise in their popularity, video games have received more than their share of criticism. They have been blamed for a number of mass murders, including those in Columbine High School (ref) and the Sandy Hook Elementary School (ref), as well as Anders Breivik’s attacks in Norway (ref).

Blaming a new entertainment medium for violence is not new. The Grimm Brothers’ fairytales were extremely violent* and are, in some quarters, being blamed for domestic violence (ref). In 1928, Robert Williams tried to blame the film, London After Midnight, for his committing murder (ref). In the 1950s the US Senate held hearings to determine if comic books caused violence (ref). For video games, it started with Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop in 1983 (ref).

There’s an obvious, intuitive argument to be made that the depictions and acts of violence desensitize youth and make them more prone to reenacting what they have witnessed. But the evidence is inconsistent. (ref).

Many critics cite the fact that a lot of school shooters are gamers and play violent video games (ref). But that ignores the basic fact that video games are commonplace. You may as well blame violence on ice cream consumption. As of 2013, video game sales were increasing annually, and violent crime was declining (ref). According to some sociologists, it is social isolation – not video games – that leads to violence (ref).

That last point would indicate that videogames may reduce violence. We are in an age where children’s opportunities for social play has declined (ref). But with the advent of multi-player online games such as Call of Duty and Overwatch, video games provide a social outlet (ref). And there is a body of research indicating that video game play provides social as well as cognitive, creative, motivational and emotional benefits. (ref)

There is no way to definitively rule out a link between playing violent video games and committing violent acts. But the evidence doesn't point to such a link (ref). In the next decades, the media will shift their attention to some new form of entertainment.

---

*For one example, in the original Cinderella, the stepsisters hacked off pieces of their own feet in order to fit their feet into the glass slipper.