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Juan Miguel Martinez

ENGL 1302; 223

Mr. Powers

27th February 2024

Research Analysis Essay Final Draft

Video games are one of the most popular forms of entertainment today ever since they

appeared around the world in the mid 1980’s. Ever since then, the video gaming industry has

grown into major companies all around the world dedicated to making games to bring their

customers fantasies to life. Of course, many video games are made to be enjoyed by young

children with childish aspects in mind while producing games. But, another large section of

video games, are made for adults and sometimes even adolescents, with heavy amounts of

violence, gore, and freedom to do whatever you want. This specific genre of games, violent

video games to be exact, are more or less, frowned upon in the twenty-first century; the main

reason being that many people think that these violent video games are the cause for high

amounts of violence in the real world. But do violent video games influence the human mind at

all? With this question in mind, researchers have set out to find out the truth on whether violent

video games have an impact on the human mind, as well as finding some other unsuspecting

discoveries. From slightly biased evidence to factual results and even some positive side effects,

researchers have results the public is searching for.

There are many different research articles on the topic of video games and violence that

have different views and opinions regarding this topic. For example, one article, titled “Much

Ado About Nothing: The Misestimation and Overinterpretation of Violent Video Game Effects in
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easter and Western Nations: Comment on Anderson et al.” written by Christopher J Ferguson,

criticizes other researchers and research articles and how many other articles have “failed to note

that many scholars have been critical of the inclusion of unpublished studies in metanalyses”

(175). Stating that other scholars who have done and are currently doing the exact same research,

have different opinions but with similar results and meaning that those other researchers have a

biased point of view while researching. Another article titled “The effects of playing violent

video games on adolescents: Should parents be quaking in their boots?” by Gabrielle Unsworth

states similar criticism and points out how other researchers have flaws in their research,

specifically with one problem being that “the assertion that personality, which has long been

recognized as relatively stable, can be changed by exposure to violent media through the

rehearsal and reinforcement of aggressive knowledge structures” (Unsworth, et al). So, obviously

there are a lot of mixed viewpoints, opinions, and facts about this topic with many results having

biased opinions based on the researchers. But even so, these are still facts and proven results with

research, so now that some different viewpoints have been stated, lets see what some of the other

articles have to say about their results.

In the first article that will be talking about the results, is one titled “Video games,

frustration, violence, and virtual reality: Two studies:”, written by Christoper J Ferguson, talks

about how violent video games may cause increased levels of frustration. He begins by talking

about how he explored how violent video games instead of only increasing violence, may also

increase aggression towards close loved ones. After studying both, regular games, and virtual

reality games, the results are as one would expect; video games and “interacting with difficulty

had no appreciable impact on either aggressive affect or behavior at least in the current analysis”

(Ferguson, et al) meaning that as he was researching, he saw no increased aggression level or
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violent levels. In another similar article titled “Video Games Make People Violent- Well, maybe

Not That Game: effects of Content and Person Abstraction on Perceptions of Violent Video

Games’ Effects and Support of Censorship” written by, James D Ivory, et al, describes “whether

people’s perceptions of violent video games’ potential for negatively affecting other and their

support for censoring such games are influenced by whether people consider specific or abstract

content and persons” (Ivory, et al). Like the previous article mentioned, this article too had

similar results, saying that “we did not find person abstraction to have a significant impact on

support for censorship” (Ivory, et al). But the same article goes to explain how some other

researchers have explored similar topics, but how almost all of them have a “lack of consensus

regarding the presence and extent of such negative effects” (Ivory, et al). Meaning how some

researchers may have a bias when conducting research on this certain topic.

Over many research articles researching this topic, many have come to the same

conclusion; violent video games do not have a long term impact on the human mind. Although

many articles state that there are not any long-term side effects, there are a few short-term side

effects that are not too grave. For example, in an article titled “Neuroimaging and behavioral

evidence that violent video games exert no negative effect on human empathy for pain and

emotional reactivity to violence eLife” written by, Lukas Lengersdorff, et al, they go to explain

the fruits of their research on males playing a modified version of the game Grand Theft Auto V

and how the results “did not show decreased empathy for another person’s pain or decreased

responses to violent imagery” (Lengersdorff, et al). Even though there were not any significant

changes, there were some less significant changes made to the brain, particularly in adolescents

and children. In another article titled “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: A Meta-analytic Review

of Positive and Negative Effects of Violent Video Games”, written by Christopher Ferguson,
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goes to state similar results as to the previous article and how the results do not “support a

relationship between violent video game exposure and aggressive behavior” (314). Even though

Ferguson states that there is no clear relationship between violent video games, and violence in

the real world, Ferguson states that, “violent video game exposure is associated with increased

visuospatial cognition” (314). Another example of how even though there is no direct connection

or long-term side effects of playing violent video games, there are still some minor, indirect, or

short-term side effects on children and adolescents when playing violent video games, although,

there could be some positive side effects to this.

Continuing on with the results various other researchers have found, an article titled

“Effects of playing violent video games on teenagers’ behavior- A cross sectional study from

Malaysia”, conducted by Marzo RR, et al stretches out this research, towards Malaysia. The

authors begin by stating that there is a certain “concern that the effects of video games playing

are larger than the effects observed with television and film viewing, and that children and young

people may be at a greater risk of negative effects as a consequence of exposure to violent video

games” (180) stating that violent video games may have a greater effect on adolescents and

children, than watching violent television shows, or violent movies. The author’s results are like

that of the previous article. They state how, “the results show that there is relationship between

the video games and the aggressive behavior even the prosocial behavior as well” (182) even

going as far to say that there is even a positive side to playing these types of games. The authors

go on to state how some video games tend to lead prosocial behaviors tendencies and that

prosocial tendencies tend to lead to selection of prosocial games” (182). Furthermore, another

article titled “Effects of Prosocial, Neutral, and Violent Video Games on College Students”,

written by Muniba Saleem, et al, explains how at the time, research has revealed that “playing
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prosocial video games increases prosocial cognitions” (Saleem, et al) stating that you can get

better at socializing by playing games that require players to socialize often, but other games do

have an opposite effect. After conducting research to find out effects of prosocial, violent, and

neutral video games on college students, the authors found out that prosocial games overall,

reduced hostility, (Saleem, et al), how violent games increase total hostility, (Saleem, et al), and

how the “effect of video game content on total state hostility, aggravated, mean, and positive

feelings appears stronger for participants who normally are not very physically aggressive”

(Saleem, et al).

Overall, after researching this topic of whether violent video games influence the human

mind, the conclusion is as follows: violent video games, have little to no effect, on the human

mind, although there are some small, biased points and side-effects, there is no clear negative

effect on the human brain. In fact, there can also be a positive influence on the human mind and

that those positive side effects can in fact, have a bigger influence than any negative effect. There

will always be more research being conducted as more games are released. But based on this

research, there will be little to no negative side effects of playing violent video games.
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Sources

Ferguson, Christopher J, et al, “Much Ado About Nothing: the Misestimation and

Overinterpretation of Violent Video Game Effects in easter and Western Nations:

Comment on Anderson et al.”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 136, No. 2, 2007, 174-178

Ferguson, Christopher, “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: A Meta-analytic Review of Positive

and Negative Effects of Violent Video Games”, Springer Science+Business Media, 78,

no. 10, 4 October 2007, pages 309-316.

Ferguson, Christopher J, et al, “Video games, frustration, violence, and virtual reality: Two

studies, British Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 62, Issue 1, January 2022

Ivory, James D, et al, “Video Games Make People Violent- Well, maybe Not That Game: effects

of Content and Person Abstraction on Perceptions of Violent Video Games’ Effects and

Support of Censorship”, Communication Reports, Vol. 22, Issue 1, January 2009

Lukas Leopold Lengersdorff, et al (2023) “Neuroimaging and behavioral evidence that violent

video games exert no negative effect on human empathy for pain and emotional reactivity

to violence eLife”, January 16, 2024, 12:e84951

Marzo RR, et all. Effects of playing violent video games on teenagers’ behavior- A cross

sectional study from Malaysia. Indian J Comm Health. 2019;31(2):179-184

Saleem, Muniba, et al, “Effects of Prosocial, Neutral, and Violent Video Games on College

Students”, Aggressive Behavior, Vol. 38, Issue 4, July/August 2012.

Unsworth, Gabrielle, et al, “The effect of playing violent video games on adolescents: Should

parents be quaking in their boots?”, Psychology, Crime & Law, August 2007, Vol. 13,

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