Are video games a cause of the violence?

[Endur]

Violence is coded into our DNA.
We are the children of victors.
Maybe violent video games are an outlet for the desire to win in a violent encounter, like contact sports or action movies that most people will not be able to satisfy in daily life.
Maybe we should stop judging entertainment and take a hard look into the mirror.

Typos brought to you via Tapatalk and autocorrect.

Truth my friend, truth.

[jpmuscle]

Like suicide bombing, being Muslim doesn't mean you're a suicide bomber, but suicide bombers do tend to be mostly Muslims right now.

http://m.psychologytoday.com/blog/se...x-and-violence

http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2006...rorism.comment

That is really a fascinating population to research since their are so many potential explanations as to why someone would may be motivated to engage in that type of behavior or to engage in terrorism in general. Be it drive theory, social learning, etc or another combination of biopsychosocial factors. Problem is their is real dearth of data on these types of persons and for obvious reasons but for the longest time it was touted that would be suicide bombers suffered from some sort of severe psychopathology but in reality that just isn't the case.

Quick aside two great texts on the subject include the following (both of which were core texts in one of my grad classes):

http://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Ter.../dp/0195172493

The second is The Psychology of Terrorism by Randy Borum (in PDF format)

https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/208552.PDF

[MountainRaven]

Violence is coded into our DNA.
We are the children of victors.
Maybe violent video games are an outlet for the desire to win in a violent encounter, like contact sports or action movies that most people will not be able to satisfy in daily life.
Maybe we should stop judging entertainment and take a hard look into the mirror.

Typos brought to you via Tapatalk and autocorrect.

I once read a theory, I forget where, that why our society seems to be more violent (or more accurately, that incidents of mass violence appear to have increased, even as overall violence has fallen) is simply a by-product of the fact that those with sociopathic tendencies toward violence had many more socially acceptable outlets for those tendencies then they do now. And that it is possible or even likely that something like 1-in-3 people, maybe more, have a certain amount of those sociopathic tendencies.

[jpmuscle]

I once read a theory, I forget where, that why our society seems to be more violent (or more accurately, that incidents of mass violence appear to have increased, even as overall violence has fallen) is simply a by-product of the fact that those with sociopathic tendencies toward violence had many more socially acceptable outlets for those tendencies then they do now. And that it is possible or even likely that something like 1-in-3 people, maybe more, have a certain amount of those sociopathic tendencies.

Fwiw Psychopathy and its associated characteristics would probably be more appropriate descriptors as these are the ones most pervasive in individuals with antisocial personality disorder. Sociopaths take things to the far extreme and do so all the time and are on the far end of the spectrum in terms of antisocial behavior. Psychopathy is really interesting stuff though and underpins a lot of current criminological research and theory.

For reference:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12108763

http://homepage.univie.ac.at/ali.al-...z/daly1997.pdf


The second article may more relevant to what your referencing since it frames the discussion by suggesting psychological processes are subject to evolutionary changes over time. As to the first article I have a copy of the first article I linked to if anyone wants it, its a good read.

[T2C]

1) Some people are more violent than others.
2) It is a parent's responsibility to raise and monitor their children.

[Iraqgunz]

Here's a newsflash for the so-called experts. Humans are violent by nature and have been for thousands of years. The real issue is that some people have mental issues and they are unable to deal with whatever life issues they have (had) and they act on those tendencies. JMHO.

[interfan]

I agree completely with the view that humans are violent. That is a fact of life. The problem with violent videogames is that the violence is designed to be either life-like or super-reality, but there are no consequences to it. No pain, no real blood, no smell of death, no legal issues, no crying families, no dead or injured guy next to you, etc. It creates an unrealistic view of the world if you are a typical disconnected 11th place trophy winning kid today raised by the ("it takes a..") village and the TV set.

The source of this problem is the idiot "progressives" that try to neuter everything. I have a toddler and my wife had me start looking at pre-schools the other day. My wife got a brochure from one that gave a bunch of "zero tolerance" things that would lead to expulsion. Top of the list is fighting. Now as a male, I understand that a fight between other males is a normal part of growing up. Many lifelong friends were first playground opponents where you would fight a little, then get tired or fighting, then go play as friends. This is (was...) a normal part of growing up. Through the process, you learn that if you hit someone and they hit you, it hurts. So you learn that violent actions have consequences, and this is better to learn early rather than later in life.

I asked the administrator about this "zero tolerance" and she said that if there was a fight, they call the police first, then the parents. Police for 3-4 year olds? WTF is wrong with these people, and how can a patrol officer actually take a call for 3 year olds fighting seriously?

[SteveS]

I doubt it. It is the Paxil , Welbutrin and Prozac type of antidepressants the doctors are prescribing to the kids . The doctors and drug companies should be held at fault but the lobby money is too good for the politicians to give it up...