Gaming does not make you more aggressive, after all!

Turns out, shooting people’s heads off in the virtual amount does not imply you will run off shooting in the streets. This revelation, which runs contrary to all previous research about gaming linkinglong-term exposure to increased violence and thoughts of violence, is based on a reanalysis of data from over 21,000 young gamers on the planet.

Fronted by Aaron Drummond from Massey University in New Zealand, the research claims playing video games is not a contributing factor to one’s aggression and/orviolent tendencies. To reach this conclusion, Drummond reanalysed 28 meta-analytical studies that linked violence to gaming.

"Small effect"

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His pursuit revealed that only a very small number of people exhibited aggression after gaming, and this positive correlation was too negligible to be taken as the primary signifier of game induced violence. The researchers claimed that it is such a small number, that it does not qualify to even producing a “small effect”.

The report said that the “current research is unable to support the hypothesis that violent video games have a meaningful long-term predictive impact on youth aggression”.

The studies that were analysed by the study head went as back as 2008 showed a small positive correlation between violence and video-games. Over a quarter of the gamers were said to have been susceptible to real-life aggression. There was no concrete conclusion linking violence to gamers in any of these studies. In fact, a study from 2011 showed a negative correlation between aggression and gaming.

Accumulation of micro violence?

The most common argument against violent gaming is that an accumulation of micro-violence is one major negative effect of gaming. Over a long-time, this may change one’s temperament, making one susceptible to aggression. However, the study showed no evidence of such accumulation, but in fact paints a totally opposite picture.

The report mentions that “long-term impacts of violent games on youth aggression are near zero”.

Most scientific scholars and groups have based their violence-linked studies to negligible relationship observed between gamers and aggression.

Many studies have also attempted to map emotional behaviour linked to gaming. A research from 2018 done by the University of New South Wales found that gamers used to violence were able to ignore depictions of violence in other contexts.