New Study Of 7 Nations Implausibly Claims Violent Media Use Causes Nearly 3 Times More Harm Than Abusive Parenting

A recent article in Science magazine covered the story of a new research study (full study available here) linking violent video games and movies to aggression. The study claims the link is almost three times stronger than abusive parenting. Could this be true? Let’s take a look at the study and see. The study is led by the sometimes controversial Iowa State group, who have long argued for links between violent media and aggression. This group has sometimes come into criticism, for example, for comparing the effects of violent media to smoking and lung cancer, or implying video games might play a role in mass shootings despite absence of evidence for such claims. One of the authors once participated in a murder trial where, in effect, his testimony appeared to help the defense shift blame from the (ultimately) convicted murder onto one of his teenage victims, arguing that a combination of video game playing and ADHD symptoms put the teenager at risk for violent behavior. I understand this must sound like a convoluted argument, but the actual murderer claimed he came upon the teenager murdering the teen’s own family, then had to defend himself from the video game-addled teen by beating him to death with a tire iron (the jury did not buy this argument). And this is not the first time that the Iowa State group has tried to argue that video games have more impact than abusive parenting. Reading the article itself raises some immediate red flags. The authors engage in a...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news