Article Response Paper: "games Do Cause Violent Behavior (but Not Much)"

Article Response Paper:

"The Article: Games Do Cause Violent Behavior (But Not Much)"

By: Collin Campbell

Analyzed from the Perspective the Yin and Yang Concept

JULY, 2008

"The Article: Games Do Cause Violent Behavior (But Not Much)"

By: Collin Campbell

I. ARTICLE SUMMARY

The article"Games Do Cause Violent Behavior (But Not Much) "written by Collin Campbell first appeared in Business Week in April of 2007. In the article, Collin discusses Professor Markey's research findings on Video games and violent behavior. The research concludes that violent video games do make players aggressive but have been taken out of context. He says, "When you look at the research there's no question at all. Violent video games do cause aggression. It's so clear. However, and this is a huge however, the effect is very, very small.

Markey conducted his research with Gary Giumetti at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. 167 university undergraduates participated in the study. They completed a demographics form and additional questionnaires that were used to hide the true purpose of the study. Then they played some games. Finally they completed a measure of aggression as well as other unrelated questionnaires in order to maintain the cover story. Two groups separately played violent and non-violent games (Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance; Doom 3; or Return to Castle Wolfenstein against Tetris Worlds; Top Spin Tennis and Project Gotham Racing).

Aggressive Responses

The report indicated that overall, players of the violent video games produced significantly more aggressive responses than the non-violent games players. The mean number of aggressive responses for the three non-violent video games did not differ from each other, nor did the mean number of aggressive responses for the three violent video games. This all looks like a clear case against violent games. However, when the results were compared against the initial questionnaires, it turned out that mild-mannered people were affected the least by the games while ‘angry people' were affected the most.

He believes his studies correlate with a lot of work in this area that has gone before, which has often found a small correlation between violent games and immediate subsequent behavior. But he says the media and politicians are wrong to seize on this as wildly significant because of the size of the effect, its context and

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