Violent Behavior Analysis

In this paper, Carnagey, Anderson, and Bushman hypothesize that the rise and popularity of violent video games are desensitizing people, especially children, leading them to have brash personalities which leads to real life violence. In their introduction, the authors state that over eighty-five percent of games contain some form of violence, and also cite an older paper stating that many games rated "E" are still considered too violent by parents. They also state that although there are quite a substantial amount of papers on the subject, they continue to cause debate or are seen as inconclusive. However, their goal with this test was to at link the desensitization of a person leading to violent behaviors due to the person playing video games.
In the study, they used two hundred and fifty seven college students, with a slightly larger female group. The students were tested individually and were told the purpose of the study was to view and evaluate various forms of media. After the stand consent procedures were completed, the students heart rates were measured for five minutes. During this period, the students were asked how many hours they play video games and what percentage of that time was used to played violent video games. After the heart rate measurement, the students were asked to play a randomly assigned video game that ranged from very violent games (Mortal Kombat, Duke Nukem, Future Cop) to nonviolent games (Glider Pro, 3D Pinball, Tetra Madness). For twenty minutes the students were allowed to play these games then a second set of heart rate tests were implemented.
After the second test, the students watched a ten minute video showing real life violence in four different contexts. While these clips were going on, the students heart rates were still measured. Lastly after the video, the students were asked to fill out a questionnaire asking various questions using a one to ten scale, describing their experience with their video game and the film showed. As stated in the previous section, after the students heart rate was tested before they played their given game, after the play through, and during the video showing real life violent acts occurring. Within the two groups of games (nonviolent,violent) the authors found that there was not any significant differences between the four selected violent games or the four selected non violent games. Through their main analysis which utilized the heart rates of the users, they found their was no significant differences during the first two heart rate tests between the non violent group and the violent group. The portion that does cause some interest is the difference of heart rates in regard to viewing the compilation of violent
actions. With this result, the test suggests that the students who played the violent games were not as attentive by the real life violence shown compared to the group that played the non violent games. I did not really see any glaring issue with their methodology but, there are some things I would have liked to see tested and documented in the paper to help further solidify their test. The first thing would to be to add the additional data mentioned that compared each individual game just to see if the genre of the violent/non violent games affected the heart rate response of the corresponding video. Like for me personally, I would have been more competitive with Mortal Kombat which is a fighting game, which in turn would have possibly increased my heart rate compared to me playing a different violent game. Furthermore, adding a competitive non violent game would have been interesting to see. The other thing I would have liked to see added onto their test is to check the heart rate similar to how the second heart rate was checked, with nothing effecting the students beforehand. It is not essential to their argument, but it can help solidify their point.