Real Science

There's actually a lot of good scientific evidence that playing violent video games or watching violent media makes people more aggressive. There's virtually no scientific evidence that it doesn't - all there is is the lack of significant effects in some studies. I think liberals don't like to hear this, but it just seems like a bias to me. Note that I am not advocating any particular policy response. I just think people should be aware.

The results showed that, after each day, those who played violent games had an increase in their hostile expectations — after reading the beginning of the stories, they were more likely to think that the characters would react with aggression or violence. And the violent video game group also gave their opponents louder and louder headphone blasts after each day of game play.

Participants who played nonviolent games showed no increase in hostile expectations or aggression.

“Hostile expectations are probably not the only reason that players of violent games are more aggressive, but our study suggests it is certainly one important factor,” said Brad Bushman, co-author of the study and professor of communication and psychology at Ohio State University.

“After playing a violent video game, we found that people expect others to behave aggressively. That expectation may make them more defensive and more likely to respond with aggression themselves, as we saw in this study and in other studies we have conducted.