Looking from a sociological and
psychological perspective, can Violent Video games encourage Violent behaviour?
Through
the years there has been much controversy about the influence that Video games,
as well as the mass media has had on how people act with one another. There has
been many negative views that Video games cause people to be violent,
aggressive and more hostile. However, how true are these claims? Studies
conducted by Sociologists and Psychologists have found a key correlation in the
relation to violent video games and violent behaviour, especially those by
adolescents. The development over the years of the video game industry has
given this market a diversity in its games, leading to many dark and horrific
games making the market. These certificate 18 games have made their way into
the hands and minds of young children, and this may have had a major impact on
violent behaviours as they grow up. The studies I will be looking at by famous
Sociologists and Psychologists will analyse whether Violence in Video games can
effect a persons behaviour, and I will also conduct research into real life
cases of violence supposedly caused directly by games.
Video
games, ever since they were released have had some element of violence
portrayed in them. Violence in video games will always be inevitable, however,
does this violence influence people to imitate their in-game actions in the
real world? Real-life studies have been conducted into this theory, and most of
the results show the same correlation. 'Evidence suggests that long-term
players of violent games may become more likely to react aggressively to
unintentional provocations such as someone accidentally bumping into them.'
(Daily Mail Online, 2012) The research conducted found that the teenagers
who played violent video games showed rises in their aggression levels over the
course of the study. The influence of the violence in these video games has
evidently shown in the actions of individuals such as a young boy of age 14,
who hung himself after playing 'Call of Duty' which has disturbing scenes of
soldiers trying to kill each other. Another is Anders Breivik, who killed 77
people in Norway after claiming he played 'Call of Duty' to train himself for
the task. Another study conducted by the Department of Psychology at Iowa State
University examined the effects of desensitization to violence. 'No research
has experimentally examined violent video game effects on physiological
desensitization, defined as showing less physiological arousal to violence in
the real world after exposure to video game violence in the virtual world.' (N
Carnagey, C Anderson, B Bushman , 2005) They monitored the heart rate of
participants as they played violent video games, and then showed them real-life
violence. Participants who had played the video game had a lower heart rate
when watching the real-life violence than those who had not played the video
game. This shows a strong link between video games and a desensitization to
violence. This desensitization can cause adolescents to commit acts of violence
with no thought as they feel no sensitivity towards their actions. The blame
for adolescents behaviour in recent years has always been put onto video games,
with major shootings being put down to people being influenced by certain
games. 'The rise in dramatically violent shootings by teenagers, many of
whom apparently play violent video games, is helping the argument that video
game violence translates into real-world situations.' (Julia Layton, 2013) A
famous shooting in Colorado committed by the Columbine shooters in a high
school has been claimed to have been caused by the shooters playing violent
games. 'The media revealed that Harris and Klebold played a lot of violent video
games, including "Wolfenstein 3D," "Doom," and "Mortal
Kombat."' (Julia Layton, 2013).
To examine the way mass media such as games can effect how we act in society we have to first understand the sociological theories behind it. The first theory which was released around 1940-1950 was the Hypodermic Needle Theory. This theory suggests that like a needle, the mass media is 'injected' into the audience and the effect it has is immediate and overwhelming. 'The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change. (University of Twente, 2013) At this time there were various reasons to suggest the mass media was having a direct effect on the population. The main indicator was the steep rise of Propaganda and advertising. Being around the time of WWII, the use of propaganda to influence the actions of the masses was widely used and successful. Another use of propaganda was 'Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party'. (University of Twente, 2013) This is the earliest and simplest form of influence from the media, however, it is still relevant today, with this theory explaining panic caused by news stories such as epidemics and natural disasters. Two Sociologists who expanded on this theory were Katz and Lazarfeld (1955) who introduced the Two Step Flow theory of Mass Communication. Their theory claims that the media moves in two stages. These two stages are split between opinion leaders and Individuals in social contact with an opinion leader. The opinion leaders are the receivers of the mass media’s information, and who interpret it to the rest of the audience. 'Opinion leaders are quite influential in getting people to change their attitudes and behaviors and are quite similar to those they influence.' (University of Twente, 2013) The opinion leaders intepret the media’s message to the individuals in social contact with them. Katz and Lazarfeld are simply trying to explain that our relationships with others also can determine how we interpret and gain influence from the mass media. They have claimed that there must be more than one step to how the population receives media, as one person may receive a media message and then go and pass the message onto someone else. In relation to how this can effect a person in terms of violence, if we examine a recent story of a 14 year old boy. This boy befriended a 13 year old boy while playing online on Gears of War 3. The two met in person, and their relationship evolved into something more aggressive through the game. In April 2012, while meeting again, the 14 year old boy cut the throat of his friend, killing him. Because of their violent interpretation of the game and their friendship being based around this violence, the message received by this media effected them both negatively and ended up with the death of one of the boys. If the two boys had never met and gained this violent and aggressive friendship through the messages of the game, would the older boy still have gotten the idea to kill?
However,
even looking over studies and cases of violence, there is no substantial
evidence that proves that these games directly affected these actions, and are
video games really to blame for individuals behaviour? A Secondary school
student from R.A. McMath, claims there is no correlation between violence in
video games in violence in real life. 'In an essay he wrote on the subject,
Yeung, who plays games such as Call of Duty and Left 4 Dead 2, points out that
many of the shooting games that are popular in North America are also played in
foreign markets. However, while mass shootings have been spotlighted in the
United States for the past few years, such acts has decreased in those other
countries, Japan and France in particular.' (Andrew Hung, 2013) Therefore,
if the violence was directly caused by the video games, there would be a
substantial rise in violence in other countries as well, but this is not
evident. A study found in the New York Times also explains that the correlation
between the sales of violent video games and the rates of violent crime is not
what is expected. The rates of violent youth crime is actually seen to have
lowered in contrast to the rise in violent video game sales. 'We found that
higher rates of violent video game sales related to a decrease in crimes, and
especially violent crimes' (Dr. Michael Ward,2013) If there was an increase
violent crimes committed by youths in relation to the increase of sales, this
would indicate a possible link, however there isn't. One obvious cause
of violence, is mental health problems, as well as some people claiming it is
in our 'genes'. If a perfectly normal, sane person plays a violent video game,
does this mean they will go out and mimic the actions? No, as the violent
crimes figures would be sky high. A recent post on Gamasutra's website examines
the reasons behind why people commit violent crimes, and how video games aren't
to blame. 'There’s no reason to believe the aggression videogames cause is
any different or more severe than aggression from any other source.' (Michal
Kasumovic, 2013) Violence at its core is triggered in people by a variety
of different things, whether it is from alcohol consumption or sports, there
are many triggers that can cause aggression. Video games can also be one of
these triggers. A study conducted into the long term effects of violent video
games in adolescents, supported that exposure to video games for as little as
ten minutes can enforce aggressive behaviours. 'But when researchers
consider other social factors linked to adolescent aggression, it seems increased
exposure to family violence and negative peer influences and less communication
with their parents have greater effects. Violent videogames, it seems, may be
an indicator, but there are clearly deeper issues at play.' (Michal Kasumovic,
2013) Looking into aggression, there are dependencies they determine
whether as a person we react to certain scenarios. Some people would react
violently to someone who is victorious over them in a game situation, however
others would not. This would suggest that psychologically we are all different
in terms of how we react in situations, which can explain many of the violent
crimes committed by adolescents. 'In the same way, there may be a subset of
individuals that are at a greater risk of the influence of violent video games.
As videogames have many benefits, rather than demonising them, shouldn’t we use
videogames to try and identify these individuals?'(Michal Kasumovic, 2013) For
a prime example, in the case of a 20 year old boy, Adam Lanza. He murdered his
own family after apparently playing the game 'Dynasty Warriors'. However,
looking into the case Adam had a severe antisocial disorder, as well as being
alienated by his friends after his parents split up. If Adam did not have these
underlying mental issues along with family trauma, there is a significant
chance that he would not have acted violently in any way.
After
examining the effects of the mass media on audiences, as well as studying
real-life cases of violent crimes being possibly motivated by violent video
games, there is no definite conclusion. For example, we can claim that a
persons genes and mental stability can determine whether a person acts
violently from playing video games. This is true, however, there is no way to
determine whether a persons mental instability stems from playing too many
violent video games for a prolonged amount of time. We cannot isolate the cause
of violent behaviour as they stem from the persons interpretations of the world
and the messages they receive from the media. One person may feel extremely
aggressive while playing a violent video game, and could be extremely calm in
the real-world. The cases where video games have apparently influenced a persons
actions, such as the Sandy Hook shootings, we must realise that when a person
commits these actions there is usually an underlying mental health issue. 'Social
isolation and precipitating mental health issues, particularly in the Sandy
Hook situation, have been other contributors to the criminals of the recent
shootings.' (Andrew Hung, 2013) The lack of sufficient evidence to claim
that video games do cause violent acts, means that there will never be a true
correlation between the two. However, in light of mass shootings in the USA in
recent years, the government is looking for someone to blame and video games
will always be on their radar.
Sophie
Woollard
2029
Words
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