Over the years we have seen plenty off acts of violence being blamed on violent video games, especially when it comes to teen aggression but a new study from Oxford University claims that there is no link between the two.
Oxford Internet Institute Director of Research and lead researcher Andrew Przybylski published his findings and mentioned that there is indeed no link between teen aggression and violent video games. 2,008 people took part in the study, which included 14 and 15-year-olds and their caretakers.
The following is the main highlight regarding what the paper had to say about the link between teen aggression and violent video games:
Following a preregistered analysis plan, multiple regression analyses tested the hypothesis that recent violent game play is linearly and positively related to carer assessments of aggressive behavior. Results did not support this prediction, nor did they support the idea that the relationship between these factors follows a nonlinear parabolic function. There was no evidence for a critical tipping point relating violent game engagement to aggressive behavior.
Unlike other studies that have been conducted on the game topic, these researched chose to pre-register their hypothesis, methods, and analysis technique publically in order to avoid any kind of bias. Co-author Dr. Netta Weinstein mentioned that bias could have affected the results of previous studies that have been conducted regarding the same topic and that is why the information that we had before this study is most likely inaccurate.
I for one have always believed that there is no link. I have been playing all kinds of video games all my life and I have never really committed an act of violence.
Let us know what you think about this study and whether or not you think that there is a link between violent video games and teen aggression.
