Violent Video Games and Aggression

2008/02/19 by Christopher J. Ferguson, Stephanie M. Rueda, Amanda M. Cruz +3 · 7 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · Medicine · #Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression #Digital Games and Media #Child Development and Digital Technology #Aggression #Video game #Psychology #Poison control #Trait #Injury prevention #Human factors and ergonomics #Suicide prevention #Social psychology #Developmental psychology #Medical emergency #Medicine #Computer science #Multimedia

paper · doi:10.1177/0093854807311719

openalex publication_date 2008/02/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/09

Abstract

Two studies examined the relationship between exposure to violent video games and aggression or violence in the laboratory and in real life. Study 1 participants were either randomized or allowed to choose to play a violent or nonviolent game. Although males were more aggressive than females, neither randomized exposure to violent-video-game conditions nor previous real-life exposure to violent video games caused any differences in aggression. Study 2 examined correlations between trait aggression, violent criminal acts, and exposure to both violent games and family violence. Results indicated that trait aggression, family violence, and male gender were predictive of violent crime, but exposure to violent games was not. Structural equation modeling suggested that family violence and innate aggression as predictors of violent crime were a better fit to the data than was exposure to video game violence. These results question the common belief that violent-video-game exposure causes violent acts.

Citations

• The earth is round (p < .05).
• A longitudinal behavioral genetic analysis of the etiology of aggressive and nonaggressive antisocial behavior
• A power primer.
• Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life.

Cited by

• The effect of video game competition and violence on aggressive behavior: Which characteristic has the greatest influence?
• A Multivariate Analysis of Youth Violence and Aggression: The Influence of Family, Peers, Depression, and Media Violence
• Paradigm change in aggression research: The time has come to retire the General Aggression Model
• Video Games and Youth Violence: A Prospective Analysis in Adolescents
• Cause or Catalyst: The Interaction of Real World and Media Crime Models
• Effects of violence in mass media [wikipedia]
• Game studies [wikipedia]

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