From Social Psychological and Personality Science
In America this week the US Supreme Court has been hearing a case about the banning of violent video games. For many, this issue has been a concern for a long time in relation to children’s use and the impact of the exposure to their violence. Until now research has focused on the immediate effects on aggression levels, but this research is the first to test the long-term causal effects. The findings reveal that increased aggression is still evident 24 hours after the game had been turned off, but only among men who ruminated about the game. Women did not experience an increase in long-term aggression regardless of the type of game or if they spent time thinking about it afterwards. This study supports the argument by violent game critics that these games could be considered potentially dangerous for a certain type of user due to the clear aggression-stimulating effects, and counters the view that they are all simply harmless escapist fun.
