So I've heard many people say watching violent videos affect your behaviour. But I myself don't observe any change in me.

So does it truly affect anyone and if yes how exactly?

Some of the sites that indicate this are:

  1. Violence in the Media Psychologists Study Potential Harmful Effects - American Psychologigal Association
  2. Violent and nonviolent video games produce opposing effects on aggressive and prosocial outcomes - Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I think the question can be considered duplicate cogsci.stackexchange.com/questions/16131/… $\endgroup$ – hexadecimal Aug 6 '17 at 9:31
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Hello and welcome! First off: this is a debated topic, with some contradictory research. Secondly: all of these studies are on statistical averages (or case studies), so it may or may not be applicable for you. IMHO we are aways away from being able to answer "does it truly affect anyone", though the mechanism for the effect seems to have a common theme of desensitization. May I ask what you want beyond your citations? They seem to present a clear answer to this question. $\endgroup$ – mfloren Aug 6 '17 at 13:35
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ The University of Missouri article seems well articulated to answer both questions. May I ask: what else are you looking for? $\endgroup$ – mfloren Aug 6 '17 at 17:08
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @hexadecimal I wouldn't regard this as a dupe - violence vs fear - similar $\endgroup$ – Yvette Colomb Aug 7 '17 at 3:43
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ This has been asked in Skeptics.SE and has an excellent answer $\endgroup$ – Chris Rogers Feb 5 '18 at 22:35

An answer to the same question in Skeptics.SE, states that the scientific community is heavily divided on the subject and no clear consensus has been reached.

The information on Wikipedia has been updated with a new article since the Skeptics answer, but the result has not changed. ALL linked articles below have links to further reading backing the claims

A common hypothesis is that playing violent video games increases aggression in young people. Various studies claim to support this hypothesis. Other studies find no link. Debate among scholars on both sides remains contentious and, as of yet, no clear consensus has been reached either for or against effects, whether positive or negative.
(Source: Wikipedia)

In 2005, the APA even got involved and released an official statement referencing numerous articles backing their claims, saying:


Some scholars however suggested that the APA's policy statement ignored discrepant research and misrepresented the scientific literature. (Bowman, 2014)(Ferguson, 2013)

In 2015, the American Psychological Association released another review (APA, 2015) that found that violent video games caused aggressive behavior, with Mark Appelbaum, the chair of the task force that conducted the review, saying that "the link between violence in video games and increased aggression in players is one of the most studied and best established in the field." The same review found insufficient evidence of a link between such video games and crime or delinquency. However, controversies erupted over the task force conclusions, with concerns about perceived conflicts of interest among task force members, and methodological limitations of their review. (Wofford, 2015)


APA. (2015) Technical Report on the Review of the Violent Video Game Literature [PDF Online]
Available at: http://www.apa.org/pi/families/review-video-games.pdf

Bowman, N. (2014) UPDATE: Four Respond to 228, Responding to the APA: Dissent Within the Academy Regarding Media Violence (#ECA14 Panel) [Online]
Available at: http://onmediatheory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/four-respond-to-228-responding-to-apa.html

DOI: 10.1037/a0030597

Wofford, T. (2015) APA Says Video Games Make You Violent, but Critics Cry Bias [Online]
Available at: http://www.newsweek.com/apa-video-games-violence-364394


Your Answer

