Talking About Gamesand Violence
Mia Consalvo
Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design
Concordia University

Social science research ingeneral has been going
through a rough timelately…

Remember the marshmallow test?

yeah.

Looking for acomprehensive review of
research on this topic?

● Barrie Gunter,2016, Does Playing
Video Games Make
Players MoreViolent? PalgraveMacmillan

“Video game playing does not occur in either asocial vacuum, or in a setting devoid of otherpotentially violent media experiences.
Separating out the effects of mediated from
non-mediated violence experiences is difficult
enough. Going one step further to differentiate
between the effects of violent video game
exposure as distinct from those of violent
movies watched in a movie theatre, or violent
programmes seen on television, is even morechallenging.”(Gunter, p. 160)

Where did studies of games andviolence come from?
● Payne Fund studies of movies in the 1930s● Television studies in the 1980s● Cultivation Model (Mean and Scary World

hypothesis)● Tied to moral panics (hi Lindsay!)● Early research often lumped violent ‘media’
all together: films, television, games

Early games work
● Surveys● Naturalistic observation● Experiments

Early games work – Problems● Surveys● Naturalistic observation● Experiments

Early games work – Problems● Surveys – No Causality● Naturalistic observation● Experiments

Early games work – Problems● Surveys – No Causality● Naturalistic observation – Little control oversetting, variables● Experiments

Early games work – Problems● Surveys – No Causality● Naturalistic observation – Little control oversetting, variables● Experiments – Artificial Setting + EffectTimeMore Problems● Studies can examine violent thoughts,violent feelings, and violent behaviors, which
are not all the same thingMore Problems● Studies can examine violent thoughts,violent feelings, and violent behaviors, which
are not all the same thing● Studies use different measures anddefinitions of what aggression isMore Problems● Studies can examine violent thoughts,violent feelings, and violent behaviors, which
are not all the same thing● Studies use different measures anddefinitions of what aggression is● Ethical concerns about using/testing actual
aggression can result in weird substitutes

Two Major Theories/Approaches
General Aggression Model (Craig Anderson, etal)● Focuses on cognition (thoughts) as installing
scripts for behavior● Catalyst Model (Chris Ferguson)● Finds major faults with GAM● Focuses more heavily on certain personality,environmental factors●

Everyone agrees it is not a
simple issue
It can depend on a player’s neighborhood, family life, school
performance, friends, personality, social history, media diet,gender, mental health, etc etc

But what about thosemeta-analyses of all thestudies?

Multiple (and competing!) MetaAnalyses have been done, but● Garbage in, garbage out● Publication Bias
● Differences in interpretation of results● No clear cut consensus among allresearchersGetting more nit-picky● Not all games are violent● Players of violent games aren’t always

engaged in violence within them

Getting more nit-picky●Much of the research, including the Gunter book,conflates research on players of different ages
● A 5-year old is very different from a 17 year
old ‘child’Getting more nit-picky● It is unclear how many studies actually

included girls and women (who often but notalways show smaller ‘effects’)Another way to approach
the issue is to ask…

What do people do withgames?

Rather than ‘what togames do to people?’