"The literature is beset with methodology flaws and I don't think this report addresses those flaws," says Dr. In an open letter, the group called the APA's policy statements on violent video games "misleading and alarmist" and said they "delineated several strong conclusions on the basis of inconsistent or weak evidence."įor some of those researchers, Thursday's announcement is confirmation that the APA has it in for video games. In 2013, a large group of researchers-more than 230, including academics from Harvard, Yale and Columbia universities-took issue with the APA, the task force and its research methodology. The problem, though, is that many experts think the APA's findings are junk science. "While there is some variation among the individual studies, a strong and consistent general pattern has emerged from many years of research that provides confidence in our general conclusions," wrote Mark Appelbaum, chair of the task force.īased on its findings, the APA drafted a resolution at its August 7 meeting in Toronto encouraging the Entertainment Software Rating Board to refine its video game rating system "to reflect the levels and characteristics of violence in games." The APA also called on video game developers to "design games that are appropriate to users' age and psychological development." It found "a consistent relation" between violent game use and aggressive behavior, it said in a statement. The task force released its findings last Thursday. The seven-member task force was charged with conducting a "meta-analysis," or review of existing literature, to determine whether video game violence can and does lead to real-world violence. ![]() In 2013, the American Psychological Association (APA) announced the creation of the Task Force on Violent Media. Since at least the Columbine school shooting in 1999-when both researchers and the media speculated that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a killing spree because they were denied access to the violent computer games-we have been studying and arguing about whether violent video games create violent urges in players. ![]() As I watched what was perhaps my hundredth bullet jelly a Nazi's eyeball, carom off his eye socket and tunnel through his gray matter before exiting his skull in a cornucopia of bone fragments and gore, I had a thought: maybe this is not healthy.
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