Violence and Video Games: New Study Concludes There Is No Link Between Violence in Video Games and Anti-Social Behavior

A new Australian study has once again concluded that there is no discernible link between violent video games and anti-social behavior. The study was conducted at the University of Queensland, and tested the difference in behavior between subjects who played a violent video game and those who played a non-violent game.

The researchers studied a total of 160 undergraduate students between the ages of 17 and 43. Of these students, 55 percent were male. The researchers then classified four different games with behavioral keywords. Grand Theft Auto 4 was considered "anti-social"; Call of Duty: Black Ops' Zombie Mode was classified as "violent"; Portal 2 was considered "non-violent"; and "World of Zoo" was considered "pro-social."

The subjects then played a randomly selected game for 20 minutes. Afterwards, the researchers administered a test, asking the subjects about their level of interest, frustration, and strangely enough, arousal, after playing the game.

However, this was not the actual data the researchers were looking for. Scientists were actually measuring the participant's willingness to help pick up a pen when the examiner "accidentally" dropped it.

The study found that the games with violent or anti-social subject matters had no affect on the subject's desire to help the researcher.

The experiment was repeated with only two different games, Portal 2 or Grand Theft Auto 4, which produced the same results. It was then repeated a third time with older games, Lemmings, and a more violent version of the game called Lamers, again without any significant difference.

"Three experiments failed to find a detrimental effect of violent video games on pro-social behaviour, despite using contemporary and classic games, delayed and immediate test-phases, and short and long exposures," the report stated.

"While this study is not definitive evidence that violent video games have no detrimental effect on pro-social behaviour, it might be that previously raised concerns regarding the impact of violent games on pro-social behaviour may be mismatched or disproportionate," the researchers concluded.