Yara Janson

Aggressive videogames should get a 21+ rating.

 

Introduction

Throughout the last couple of years we have faced numerous massacres, which were believed to be triggered by aggression in videogames. There was the terrorist attack in Norway performed by Anders Behring Breivik in July of 2011, which resulted in the death of 77 people. Anders was fanatic ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’ player and praised the game for its “training and simulation purposes” (Perez, 2012). Furthermore, there is the story of Tristan Van der Vlis who killed 6 people in a shopping mall in the Netherlands in April 2011. It was claimed that Tristan was a fanatic ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ player as well (Van der Kloor, 2011).

Based on these and more incidents there has been a lot of discussion on whether videogames that contain aggression should be sold to children and young adolescents. Besides the belief that videogames could spark acts of aggression there is also a large group of people that deny this effect, according to Bushman (2013). According to Bushman there are numerous reasons for people to do this and one of these reasons is the third person effect (Davison, 1983). The third person effect basically states that people believe that media (e.g. videogames) have a stronger effect on others then on themselves.

This report will focus on the theory that videogames have an influence on aggressive behavior of individuals. Therefore, the proposition of this essay is: Aggressive videogames should get a 21+ rating.

 

Theory

The influence of television violence on aggressive behavior has been researched numerous times over the last few decades (e.g. Drabman & Thomas, 1974; Huesmann & Tayler, 2006). This research has shown that short-term exposure to media violence stimulates aggressive and violent behavior and long-term exposure can even lead to the acquisition of social cognitions (Huesmann & Tayler, 2006). The amount research conducted on whether videogames could have the same impact on behavior of individuals is much smaller. However, Irwin and Gross (1995) assessed the amount of physical aggression between a group of boys that had just played a violent game and a group of boys that had just played a non-violent game. This research has shown that the group of boys that played the violent game showed more physically aggression towards peers. This shows that aggression in media of any kind could result in aggressive behavior among individuals and especially children.

Another reason for aggression among those how are exposed to videogames is character identification. Research has shown that people are more likely to act aggressive when they identify themselves with violent characters (Konijn, Bijvank, & Bushman, 2007). In for example ‘first person shooters’ this identification level is very high due to the fact that the player becomes the killer and has the same visual perspective (Bushman, 2013). This is easily linked with the statement that Anders Breivik made about the training and simulation purposes of first-person shooters.

In many violent videogames there is a rewarding structure, whenever a player achieves a goal (e.g. killing someone) within the game this is rewarded by gaining points or advancing to a next level. As proven by research rewarding behavior will increase the frequency of this behavior (Bushman, 2013).

According to some research aggressive video games and violent media can have a cathartic role in ones life, this would imply that these games and or media give one a chance to release aggression or anger in a safe environment, therefore one would not feel the need to release this aggression in public situations (Klagge, 2012).

 

Conclusion

Although the amount of research in the world of videogames is not as extensive as the research conducted for other forms of media it is safe to state that there are numerous reasons why aggression in videogames could lead to aggressive behavior. The exposure to aggression in videogames can lead to aggressive behavior just as the exposure to violent television shows can lead to this behavior. Furthermore, character identification and the rewarding system increase the effect of this transfer of aggression and violent behavior. Although some suggest that playing aggressive videogames can function as an outlet for aggression the scientific evidence directly contradicts this idea (Bushman, 2013). Due to these conclusions the availability of these aggressive videogames should be reconsidered, especially for minors.