Experts Critical of APA’s Study Linking Violence To Video Games
For the past two decades there have been loud arguments from certain sections of the media claiming that video games, more than any other type of entertainment, have a link to real-life violence. They have blamed mass shootings like the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 on games such as Doom and Grand Theft Auto. Throughout that time though, there has been little to no evidence of such a link despite a large number of studies investigating the relationship between whether playing video games can make a person more aggressive and more likely to be violent. Yesterday, the American Psychological Association released a new paper that they claimed showed that there was a definitive link. The Task Force on Violent Media available on the APA website states that, “The research demonstrates a consistent relation between violent video game use and increases in aggressive behaviour, aggressive cognitions and aggressive affect, and decreases in pro-social behaviour, empathy and sensitivity to aggression.” The publication led to more news outlets claiming that there was