Violent video games do not encourage anti-social behaviour

Violent video games are not associated with anti-social attitudes or bullying behaviour and are associated rather with increased civic behaviour, says a new study. The study, published in the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture, suggested that youths often turned towards playing video games to reduce stress and improve mood and considered it as a fun activity.

For the study, the researchers investigated whether playing video games affected behavioural changes in 304 youths and examined their exposure to violent content in video games as well as parental involvement in their game-play. The results indicated that violent game use was not associated with antisocial attitudes or bullying behaviour rather violent video game use was actually associated with increased civic behaviour.

Parental involvement was not associated with reduced violent video game exposure. This may be because parents become comfortable with the content of games once they themselves play them, suggested the study. Boys played more violent games than girls. And youth who played video games considered it as a fun activity as also a stress-buster.

“Results from this study suggested that violent video games are not the object for concern that they were once perceived as being. As with other forms of art, ranging from rock music to comic books, perceptions of harm caused by video games to society may increasingly be a thing of the past,” said Christopher J. Ferguson, Associate Professor, Stetson University, at Florida in the US.