Violence in video games has long been fiercely debated. Playing video games that glorify violence has been believed to stir hostile urges and aggressive behavior in youth.
A new research nullifies the concept that violent titles such as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Kombat desensitizes gamers and makes them anti-social and more aggressive.
On the contrary, experts found playing such violent video games actually proved to be a beneficial experience for youngsters with attention deficit symptoms. The so called violent video games helped to slightly tone down their aggressive and bullying behavior.
Details of the study
The focus of the study was to assess whether, violent video games can trigger antisocial behavior such as bullying, physical fighting, criminal assaults and even homicide in teenagers.
They tracked 377 American children with a mean age of 13 years who were part of a large federally sponsored program that evaluates the impact of video game violence on youths.The study subjects hailed from various ethnic groups. All the participants suffered from elevated attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or exhibited depressive symptoms.
The researchers found no co-relation between the playing of violent video games and increased “bullying or delinquent behavior” in vulnerable children.
Lead author of the study, Christopher Ferguson of Stetson University stated, “Statistically speaking it would actually be more unusual if a youth delinquent or shooter did not play violent video games, given that the majority of youth and young men play such games at least occasionally”.
A study has been published in Springer’s Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
