Violent video games teach children aggression by employing the same techniques used by educators, a new study suggests.
Father and son research team J. Ronald and Douglas Gentile found that video games share seven parallels with teaching methods, including encouraging players — or students — to learn new skills over a period of time to overcome problems and changing environments. Games, like teachers, are also able to adapt to skill levels and respond to errors.
"We know a lot about how to be an effective teacher, and we know a lot about how to use technology to teach," said lead author Douglas Gentile in a release. "Video games use many of these techniques and are highly effective teachers, so we shouldn't be surprised that violent video games can teach aggression."
Douglas Gentile is a professor of psychology at Iowa State University. J. Ronald Gentile is a retired educational psychology professor.
In their study, which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, the scientists found that elementary school students who played multiple violent video games were 263 per cent more at risk to become aggressive than those who played only non-violent games.
The study looked at the behaviour of 430 elementary school students, 607 middle school students, and 1,441 teenagers.
As part of the elementary school research, the participating students, along with their peers and teachers, completed surveys assessing aggression and video game play over a six month period.
Based on the survey responses, the research found that students who played multiple violent video games were at a 73 per cent higher risk of being highly aggressive than students who played a mix of games. The same multiple violent video game-playing students were rated 263 per cent more at risk than those who played only non-violent games.
"We were able to show that students who play multiple violent games actually changed to have a greater hostile attribution bias, which also increased their aggressive behaviors over prior levels," the study said.
The researchers said the instructional aspect of video games could be employed positively as a useful educational tool in the future.
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