Research on video game violence is less extensive than that on TV and film violence, but the findings are essentially the same. Experimental studies in field and laboratory settings generally find that brief exposure to violent video games increases aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior. For example, one laboratory study assigned children and college students randomly to play either a children's video game that involved shooting cartoon-like characters or a nonviolent children's video game. Later, all participants completed a standard laboratory task that measures physical aggression. Those who had played the violent children's game displayed a 40 percent higher aggression rate than those who had played a nonviolent game. The effect was the same for both elementary school children and college students.127 In a field experiment, children were randomly assigned to play either a violent or nonviolent video game and then were observed by trained coders during a free-play period. The children who had played the violent game displayed significantly more physical aggression than those who had played a nonviolent game.128
To date, the only published longitudinal study that clearly delineates the possible influence of violent video games used a relatively short time span of six months. The researchers conducting the study assessed the media habits and aggressive tendencies of elementary school children, as well as a host of control variables, twice within a school year. The children who were heavily exposed to video game violence early in the school year became relatively more physically aggressive by the end of the year, as measured by peers, teachers, and self-reports.129 Cross-sectional studies have also found positive correlations between exposure to violent video games and various forms of aggression, including violent behavior and violent crimes.130
All three types of studies have also linked violent video games to a host of additional aggression-related cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. Outcomes include more positive attitudes toward violence, increased use of aggressive words or solutions to hypothetical problems, quicker recognition of facial anger, increased self-perception as being aggressive, increased feelings of anger and revenge motives, decreased sensitivity to scenes and images of real violence, and changes in brain function associated with lower executive control and heightened emotion.131
Violent Behavior: Summary