Literature Review

Literature Review
Opinions on the effects violent video games have on human behaviour are located down both ends of the spectrum to say the least. Some researchers claim that violent video games are frequently associated with heightened aggressive behaviour and thoughts, greater physiological arousal and decreased helping behaviour towards others (Anderson & Bushman, 2001). It was also discovered that repeated exposure to media violence increased aggression because of several factors, namely that this violence creates more positive attitudes/beliefs in the use of aggressive solutions to problems, it also gives the person more aggressive scripts behaviourally to run their life by and makes it easier for them to mentally access them. Anderson & Bushman (2001) also found that these types of games made it harder for people to access non-violent behaviour scripts as well as decreasing the negative feelings normally experienced when reacting to conflict, aggression and violence in general. Generally speaking the people who played these games for long periods of time became desensitised to the violence they were viewing in the media.
However despite these claims there are still debates going on about whether video game violence really is detrimental to people’s behaviour. Patrick Kierkegaard (2008) claims that video game violence is in fact beneficial to people who play these sort of games. He says that ‘Violent crime, particularly among the young, has decreased dramatically since the early 1990’s, while video games have steadily increased in popularity and use’. He also stated that ‘With millions of sales of violent games, the world should be seeing an epidemic of violence. Instead, violence has declined’ and that ‘Computer games can, of course, lead to violent behaviour under certain conditions – such as triggering aggression in certain people that are already predisposed to violence – but, taken together, the studies suggest only a flimsy evidence.’
Anderson & Bushman’s (2001) findings disagree with these claims as they found significant links between high levels of exposure to violent video games and delinquency, fighting in schools and criminal violence e.g. assault and robbery. They also found that even E-rated violent games which are classed as ‘suitable for everyone’ could lead to significant increases in aggression as found in a study on a group of college students.
Despite this, Hinsliff (2006) seems to agree with the ideas put forward by Patrick Kierkegaard, and argues that violent games can benefit children by improving their decision making and instilling them with positive learning traits. At least one study conducted on this area has shown that video game violence helps children exposed to it to conquer their fears and gain a sense of identity as a result. The government asked for this study to be carried out after the murder of 14 yr old Stefan Pakeerah (whose attacker was imitating a character from the game Manhunt) to quell fears that a link between violent video games and real life violence existed. It was subsequently concluded after reviewing the study that most research suggesting a link came from America and didn’t take into account the context in which children were playing the games.
Even so, there have still been numerous cases of highly aggressive behaviour as a result of exposure to or obsession with video games. Parrish (2008) writes that in 2007, 17-year old Daniel Petric shot both of his parents due to them confiscating his copy of the shooter game, Halo 3. It was also noted by Calvert (2003) that two step brothers, aged 14 and 16, shot cars on the Interstate 40 with a rifle stolen from home. When questioned by the police they claimed to be imitating the main character from the game Grand Theft Auto III, only adding to the proof that violent video games do in fact contribute to increasingly aggressive behaviour.