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How much of an influence do violent video games have in terms of making young people aggressive? An article in the scholarly journal Aggressive Behavior (Barlett, et al., 2007) (titled "Longer You Play, the More Hostile You Feel: Examination of First Person Shooter Video Games and Aggression During video Game Play") states that 70% of college students are "avid" video game players. Also, video game sales are "steadily increasing, reaching 2.9 billion dollars in 2004" (Barlett, p. 486). The most frequently rented games are violent, very often including sexual themes, the article states. Moreover there is frequently a great deal of "blood and gore" associated with these games, and adolescent children prefer violent video games to more mellow or sports-related games. Add to that the fact that video games are becoming much more realistic, some are in 3-Dimensional formats, and they have "an addictive quality," Barlett writes.
And so this is prime territory for research into just how much of an affect do violent video games have on young boys, in particular. Going back to 1980, research on video games and aggression show that adolescents who spend "the most time" in arcades where violent video games are available are the most aggressive. It should come as no surprise to parents or teachers or guardians that, as the article points out, "multiple literature reviews" and "meta-analytic work" by scholars and researchers reflects the fact that "...playing a violent video game significantly increases the aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, and physiological arousal of the players" (Barlett, p. 487). This, in turn, increases the amount of aggressive behaviors that are witnessed in empirical studies involving video games.
Scientists using a model called General Aggression Model (GAM) report in this article that the exposure "to the mere presence of the violent content in certain video games" raises the hostility level of the player "significantly." And this raising level of hostility in the video game player occurs "unconsciously" (Barlett, p. 488). Interestingly, when a player is playing in a cooperative situation with others...
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