Violent Video Games And Aggression Analysis

Playing video games has become an increasingly popular hobby in the United States of America. Even though it has become more popular and successful, playing video games also carries a negative stigma with it. Some people associate it with laziness, wasting of time, or nerdy. Some go even further and say that violent video games cause aggression or even violent behaviors. When a major catastrophe like the Virginia Tech shooting or the one at Sandy Hook Elementary School occurs, the media are quick to jump to a cause for it, and they often link the shooter's behavior with a violent video game as a scapegoat (Markey, 2014). In those two cases where the violent video games were blamed for the cause of the shootings, the perpetrator either did not even play the game they blamed,

They predicted that playing a violent video, especially with a same sex character, would increase in short-term aggression. The researchers manipulated whether the females played a nonviolent (Oh no! More Lemmings) or violent (Street fighter II) video game (also if they played as male or female in the violent game). The dependent variable was aggression, measured by both the Taylor Retaliation Competitive Time task (how loud did they make the sound for the other person) and a questionnaire to determine the type of aggression. The sex of the character did not seem to pose that much of an effect on aggression between the two violent video game playing groups, but those that did play violent video games did give the other person a louder noise blast. Their main motivation, as shown by the questionnaire, was revenge and not instrumental aggression. The researchers are interested in figuring out what specific characteristics bring about aggression in violent video games, and they also warn about too much exposure to violent