Games don't kill people, families do

A new and interesting just-published study adds fuel to the debate over whether violent video games lead to real-world violence. The (surprising) findings? Gamers who played a violent World War II shoot-'em-up displayed no more aggression than those who played the calming, meditative, and violence-free Myst III.

Additional valuable data came out in a second study by the same group (from Texas A&M and the University of Wisconsin) which analyzed patterns of aggression in individuals and compared them against a variety of commonly-believed predictors of violence. Exposure to family violence, being male, and other factors were all strong predictors that a person would commit violent acts, but exposure to violent video games was not. (In fact, it was the only item in the study that was not a good predictor of violence, at least according to the brief abstract posted on the web.)

On the other hand, the study does note that those who already exhibit aggressive personalities may be more likely to seek out violent games, and this combination is more likely to lead to real-world violence. But the same might likely be true of other combinations with a "violent personality": Watching violent movies or having a stressful job, for example.

No easy answers in this debate, but the data point is pretty clear: Real-world violence begets violence, while the effects of seeing simulated violence on your TV or computer is not so clear.

Of course, targeting and censoring violent video games is easy, while targeting actual violence is not. Something to keep in mind...

POLL: What do you think?