Psychologists at Oxford and Cardiff monitored the behavior of thousands of gamers for a month, but found no signs of increased antisocial behavior in them.
There is a deeply rooted belief among parents that modern computer action games make horrible monsters out of children. The plots of games such as Grand Theft Auto, where players steal cars, crush pedestrians, rob banks and kill law enforcement officers during the plot, leave adults in a state of shock. And there is also a huge number of shooters (from the English shooter - shooter), where the level of cruelty just rolls over. Many "analog" citizens believe that this is why representatives of the "digital" generation at one point get up from behind a game console and, seemingly for no reason, go to smash their native school or shoot classmates. But is it really so? They decided to find out this question (https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.171474) Andrew Przybylski of the University of Oxfod Internet Institute and psychologist Netta Weinstein of Cardiff University.
“The question of whether violent computer games stimulate aggressive behavior in young people is critically important,” says Andrew Przybylski. - We do not fully understand what the consequences for society may be. There is practically no scientific evidence on this score. Therefore, the expert and regulatory bodies of different countries made judgments guided not by scientific truths, but by their own ideas about beauty. For example, the American Psychological Association advocates limiting the time teenagers spend playing computer games. And the governments of Australia and Sweden do not see this as a cause for concern. Despite the concerns of parents and politicians, our research did not support the popular idea that violence in video games and violence in life are somehow related.
Andrew and Netta studied the behavior of 1,004 British adolescents aged 14-15 and in parallel interviewed their parents or guardians. For a month, young people were asked to tell what games they play. Based on these stories, ratings of children were compiled depending on how bloodthirsty their games were. At the same time, parents were asked to keep a diary where they noted the manifestation of aggressive behavior on the part of their offspring. In the end, all this data was carefully analyzed and it turned out that there is no connection between the amount of time that children "freeze" in games like Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty and the cruel or rude antics of gamers. In other words, computer "shooters" do not turn children into cold-blooded murderers eager for violence. However, the authors specifythat this is only the second study in the world on this topic. And this issue still needs careful study.
YAROSLAV KOROBATOV