Print this page

Video Game Violence: What Does the Research Say?

David Walsh, Ph.D.
President, National Institute on Media and the Family
December 1, 1998

Video games first came on the scene in the 1970s. In the last twenty-six years the games have gone from bouncing a little white ball from side to side on a screen to games of virtual reality in which one is a character in the game itself. Newly emerging on-line games enable a person to play and compete with many others in cyber-space.

The majority of the games developed with this evolving technology are entertaining, engaging, and appropriate for children. A segment of the electronic game market, however, features violence as a theme. The violence has evolved with the technology from early shooting games blasting mostly spaceships out of the sky to the most gory violence seen today where characters literally tear each other apart with all the realistic details accompanying the act. Many of these games require the use of violence often in increasing intensity to advance through the various levels, thus using violence as a problem solving technique.

As a consequence, parents have to confront the question of what effect does this kind of violence have on video games' most frequent players: children 8 to 14 years old and younger. Research is only beginning to give us a picture of what these effects might be. Due to the recent arrival of ultra-violent video games on the scene, there are relatively few studies available when compared with the research on television violence. Research on television violence clearly shows that a heavy exposure causes negative effects on children. (Walsh, 1996)

Since there is not an extensive body of research on the effects of video game violence, some state that there is no harm to children. That was the same argument used to defend television violence for more than three decades. It was only after many years of research had accumulated that that argument was abandoned.

There are also some who make the theoretical argument that video game violence may actually be beneficial for children because it gives them an outlet for aggression. This "catharsis" hypothesis was also advanced in the earliest days of the television violence debate. When the research eventually showed it to be false, it was no longer used. It is interesting to note that it is being advanced again at a time when the research on electronic game violence is in the early stages.

This short report does identify some of the early findings from the research of electronic games.

A 1996 study, surveyed 900 fourth through eighth graders on video game habits. They found that almost 50% of the favorite games chosen were of the fantasy violence or human violence type. Girls more often chose games with fantasy violence; boys preferred games with human violence (Buchman, 1996).

A 1998 study, examined thirty-three popular video games and found that almost 80% of games kids preferred had violence or aggression as part of the play. Almost half of this violence was directed toward other characters. Twenty-one percent of the games depicted violence towards women (Dietz, 1998).

With regard to the impact of video game violence on children, at the present time there are too few studies to support causal links. However, there are trends that mirror much of the work done in the area of television violence and its impact on children.

Especially for young children, there seems to be an imitative effect of playing and observing video game violence. Researchers found, for example, that in a group of 5 to 7 year olds, children imitated during free play what they had been just been exposed to on video games. The children who played active but non-violent games reflected that in their play, while children who played games with violent themes showed more aggression (Schutte, 1988).

In another study of 4 to 6 year olds, the children's aggressive behavior in free play increased after they had played or merely observed a violent video game (Silvern, 1987). In a more recent study of sixty second grade boys (ages 7 and 8), the boys who played aggressive video games exhibited significantly more aggression in subsequent free play and in a structured frustration inducing exercise than boys who played non-aggressive video games (Irwin, 1995). In a study with older children, fifth grade girls were also observed to have increased aggression in free play whether they played or just observed the playing of violent video games (Cooper, 1986).

These studies suggest that in the short term the impact of violent video games reaches out to the interested observers, whether in the home or in the arcade.

In other studies, various methods have been used to measure post video game play aggression besides observation of subsequent free play. In these studies the results are more varied. Questionnaire surveys were used in three studies of middle school and high school students (Dominick, 1984; Kestenbaum, 1984; Fling, 1992). Dominick and Fling found heavy video game use correlated with aggressive attitudes; while Kestenbaum found heavy video game use resulted in a calming effect. Unfortunately the games studied in the early 1980s bear little resemblance to the ultra-violent games of the late 1990s. Therefore the ability to extrapolate is questionable.

A 1998 study found that after playing a very violent video game children assigned more hostile motives to others than children who had just played a non-violent video game (Kirsh, 1998).

Thus, while the early results are not consistent, most of the studies to date indicate that playing violent video games does have negative effects, especially for younger children. Further research is obviously needed especially on the long-term effects.

Perhaps the most significant report to date comes from Lt. Col. David Grossman, author of On Killing. Before retiring from the military, Grossman spent over twenty-five years learning and studying how to enable soldiers to kill. Because killing does not come naturally, the armed forces have developed specific programs to train soldiers how to kill. The biggest barrier to killing is the psychological resistance, not technical skills involved in firing a weapon accurately. Grossman explains how psychological conditioning techniques were systematically applied to successfully eliminate that resistance.

As an acknowledged expert on "killology," Grossman’s insights are particularly valuable. In recent writings and interviews Grossman has been very clear. The techniques used by the army to enable soldiers to kill are the very same techniques used in today’s violent electronic games. "Children don’t naturally kill; they learn it from violence in the home and, most pervasively, from violence as entertainment in television, movies, and interactive video games." (Grossman, 1998)