Since the 1980s it has been a fairly persistent myth; violent games such as Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption or Fortnite make the children more violent. According to British research, this is not the case at all, and the negative effects that emerged in earlier publications are also exaggerated.

The most important conclusion of the most extensive research on this subject so far, is that teenagers who regularly mow down others with a virtual character are no more likely to show violent behaviour than teenagers with other hobbies.

No evidence has been found that teenagers who experienced adventures in the past month with a controller or mouse in their hand also cause violent incidents in the ‘real world’. “The statement that video games lead to violent behavior is very popular, but never well proven,” says Professor Andrew Przybylski, from Oxford’s research institute. “Despite the fact that parents and policymakers are concerned about this, our research shows that there is no reason to do so.”

However, games can lead to outbursts of anger, especially when playing online. “Some things like curses, competitive behaviour and trolls on online platforms, have indeed been observed anecdotally. This could be seen as anti-social behaviour; however, there is no pattern or causal connection,” he says.

The study involved 1,000 British 14 and 15-year-olds who were questioned beforehand about their behaviour and habits, and showed that half of the girls and two-thirds of the boys play an interactive game in a virtual world on a regular basis. With these conclusions they want to refer this persistent myth once and for all to the realm of fables.

According to the researchers, in the past research data has often been used fairly selectively in order to frame parts of a study as the truth. They warn that this is the order of the day for interested parties such as religious institutions, parents or conservative policymakers.

“Our findings suggest that there is such a thing as bias on the part of researchers. This may have influenced the results of previous studies on this subject and thus made the effects of video games more negative. These studies were the basis for policy making,” explains Netta Weinstein of Cardiff University, who helped to describe the research.

Scientists are calling for more methods to be used in the future to prevent cherry picking. This applies not only to gaming but also to other topics that can cause social unrest. As examples, they cite studies on the psychological consequences of social media and the relationship between screen time and depression.
Donald Trump disagrees with these conclusions; he believes that gaming affects the brains of young people and that it is a cause of school shootings.

references: https://www.metronieuws.nl/in-het-nieuws/2019/02/worden-tieners-agressief-van-gamen-nee-zeker-niet