Buddhist monk, photographer and author Matthieu Ricard talks about the problem posed by violent video games, and the possibility of solving them.
Read his posts below.
Violent Video Games
Posted by MATTHIEU RICARD October 14, 2013
The new version of one of the world’s best selling video games, Grand Theft Auto V has just been released. This game contains unprecedented violence. The player may, for example, drive on the sidewalk and run over pedestrians whose blood smears the bumper and the windshield of the four by four which he has taken possession of by force.
Video games have become a favorite pastime for children and adolescents. In the United States, 99 % of boys and 94 % of girls have played video games, and the time they spend on them is increasing.
A meta-analysis conducted by Craig Anderson and his colleagues (1) synthetizing 136 studies measuring 130,000 people for the effects of practicing violent video games revealed that these games undoubtedly promote aggressive thoughts and aggressive behavior, while decreasing pro-social behavior.
These effects are powerful and have been demonstrated both in children and adults, male and female. Douglas Gentile and his colleagues at the University of Iowa, for example, found that the more adolescents are exposed to violent video games, the more they become hostile to others, fight with their teachers, and are frequently involved in fights. It also affects their academic performances (2).
The analysis of video games shows that 89 % of them contain violence and 50 % contain acts of extreme violence against characters in the game. The more the play is realistic and the more blood is seen, the more the aggressiveness of the player is accentuated (3).
Two hundred million euros were spent to produce Grand Theft Auto V. Interviewed by the researcher Elly Konijn from the University of Amsterdam, a young school boy commented on the earlier version of the game, “I really like Grand Theft Auto because you can shoot people and run over them at full speed in cars. When I'm older, I can do that too.” (4)
A business based on incitement to violence is clearly a form of institutionalized selfishness. Those who make and sell violent video games are harming young people in order to make money. This is totally unacceptable.
1- Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, et al. (2010). "Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and pro-social behavior in eastern and western countries: a meta-analytic review." Psychological Bulletin, 136 (2), 151.
2- Gentile, D. A., Lynch, P. J., Linder, J. R., & Walsh, D. A. (2004). "The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance." Journal of Adolescence, 27 (1), 5 – 22.
3- Barlett, C. P., Harris, R. J., & Bruey, C. (2008). "The effect of the amount of blood in a violent video game on aggression, hostility, and arousal." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44 (3), 539 – 546.
4- Konijn, E. A., Nije Bijvank, M., & Bushman, B. J. (2007). "I wish I were a warrior: the role of wishful identification in the effects of violent video games on aggression in adolescent boys." Developmental Psychology, 43 (4), 1038.
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Beneficial Video Games
Posted by MATTHIEU RICARD on October 21, 2013
The American comedian Demetri Martin said, “I’d like to play a video game where you help the people who were shot in all the other games. It’d be called ‘Really Busy Hospital’.”
Until recently, there was little interest in the creation of pro-social non-violent video games in which the characters interact and help each other instead of killing each other. Things are about to change.
For the last two years, under the inspiration of the science advisor to President Obama, a group of researchers including psychologists, educators, and neuroscientists have been meeting in Washington to consider how best to use the craze for video games for constructive purposes.
At one of these meetings, Richard Davidson, the neuroscientist who is also the director of laboratories, imagery, and affective sciences at the University of Wisconsin, challenged manufacturers “to design games to cultivate compassion and kindness rather than games that promote aggression and violence.“
Davidson has partnered with Kurt Squire, a professor at the Universtiy of Wisconsin in Madison and director of the Games Learning Society Initiative. Their project, to develop and rigorously test two educational games designed to help secondary school students cultivate their social and emotional skills, was awarded a grant of $1.4 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The team is developing two kinds of games. One is to cultivate attention and the other one cultivates empathy, kindness, and pro-social behavior. Davidson says that attention is a building block for learning : “If you can learn to focus your attention more skillfully and concentrate it will have ripple effects on all kinds of learning.”
The second game will focus on empathy, altruism, compassion, and pro-social cooperation. Davidson believes that empathy is a core part of emotional intelligence, ““Empathy” he said, “is actually a better predictor of life success than cognitive intelligence.”
If these games are designed in attractive ways, they will have a positive impact on the players. Saleem and Greitemeyer, among others, have clearly shown that pro-social video games reduce the general level of hostility and malicious feelings towards others, while simultaneously increasing positive emotions, in the short and the long term.
Bavelier, D., & Davidson, R. J. (2013). "Brain training: Games to do you good". Nature, 494(7438), 425–426.
Saleem, M., Anderson, C. A., & Gentile, D. A. (2012). "Effects of prosocial, neutral, and violent video games on college students’ affect". Aggressive Behavior, 38(4), 263–271
Greitemeyer, T., Osswald, S., & Brauer, M. (2010). "Playing prosocial video games increases empathy and decreases schadenfreude". Emotion, 10(6), 796–802.
Read his posts below.
Violent Video Games
Posted by MATTHIEU RICARD October 14, 2013
The new version of one of the world’s best selling video games, Grand Theft Auto V has just been released. This game contains unprecedented violence. The player may, for example, drive on the sidewalk and run over pedestrians whose blood smears the bumper and the windshield of the four by four which he has taken possession of by force.
Video games have become a favorite pastime for children and adolescents. In the United States, 99 % of boys and 94 % of girls have played video games, and the time they spend on them is increasing.
A meta-analysis conducted by Craig Anderson and his colleagues (1) synthetizing 136 studies measuring 130,000 people for the effects of practicing violent video games revealed that these games undoubtedly promote aggressive thoughts and aggressive behavior, while decreasing pro-social behavior.
These effects are powerful and have been demonstrated both in children and adults, male and female. Douglas Gentile and his colleagues at the University of Iowa, for example, found that the more adolescents are exposed to violent video games, the more they become hostile to others, fight with their teachers, and are frequently involved in fights. It also affects their academic performances (2).
The analysis of video games shows that 89 % of them contain violence and 50 % contain acts of extreme violence against characters in the game. The more the play is realistic and the more blood is seen, the more the aggressiveness of the player is accentuated (3).
Two hundred million euros were spent to produce Grand Theft Auto V. Interviewed by the researcher Elly Konijn from the University of Amsterdam, a young school boy commented on the earlier version of the game, “I really like Grand Theft Auto because you can shoot people and run over them at full speed in cars. When I'm older, I can do that too.” (4)
A business based on incitement to violence is clearly a form of institutionalized selfishness. Those who make and sell violent video games are harming young people in order to make money. This is totally unacceptable.
1- Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, et al. (2010). "Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and pro-social behavior in eastern and western countries: a meta-analytic review." Psychological Bulletin, 136 (2), 151.
2- Gentile, D. A., Lynch, P. J., Linder, J. R., & Walsh, D. A. (2004). "The effects of violent video game habits on adolescent hostility, aggressive behaviors, and school performance." Journal of Adolescence, 27 (1), 5 – 22.
3- Barlett, C. P., Harris, R. J., & Bruey, C. (2008). "The effect of the amount of blood in a violent video game on aggression, hostility, and arousal." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44 (3), 539 – 546.
4- Konijn, E. A., Nije Bijvank, M., & Bushman, B. J. (2007). "I wish I were a warrior: the role of wishful identification in the effects of violent video games on aggression in adolescent boys." Developmental Psychology, 43 (4), 1038.
---
Beneficial Video Games
Posted by MATTHIEU RICARD on October 21, 2013
The American comedian Demetri Martin said, “I’d like to play a video game where you help the people who were shot in all the other games. It’d be called ‘Really Busy Hospital’.”
Until recently, there was little interest in the creation of pro-social non-violent video games in which the characters interact and help each other instead of killing each other. Things are about to change.
For the last two years, under the inspiration of the science advisor to President Obama, a group of researchers including psychologists, educators, and neuroscientists have been meeting in Washington to consider how best to use the craze for video games for constructive purposes.
At one of these meetings, Richard Davidson, the neuroscientist who is also the director of laboratories, imagery, and affective sciences at the University of Wisconsin, challenged manufacturers “to design games to cultivate compassion and kindness rather than games that promote aggression and violence.“
Davidson has partnered with Kurt Squire, a professor at the Universtiy of Wisconsin in Madison and director of the Games Learning Society Initiative. Their project, to develop and rigorously test two educational games designed to help secondary school students cultivate their social and emotional skills, was awarded a grant of $1.4 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The team is developing two kinds of games. One is to cultivate attention and the other one cultivates empathy, kindness, and pro-social behavior. Davidson says that attention is a building block for learning : “If you can learn to focus your attention more skillfully and concentrate it will have ripple effects on all kinds of learning.”
The second game will focus on empathy, altruism, compassion, and pro-social cooperation. Davidson believes that empathy is a core part of emotional intelligence, ““Empathy” he said, “is actually a better predictor of life success than cognitive intelligence.”
If these games are designed in attractive ways, they will have a positive impact on the players. Saleem and Greitemeyer, among others, have clearly shown that pro-social video games reduce the general level of hostility and malicious feelings towards others, while simultaneously increasing positive emotions, in the short and the long term.
Bavelier, D., & Davidson, R. J. (2013). "Brain training: Games to do you good". Nature, 494(7438), 425–426.
Saleem, M., Anderson, C. A., & Gentile, D. A. (2012). "Effects of prosocial, neutral, and violent video games on college students’ affect". Aggressive Behavior, 38(4), 263–271
Greitemeyer, T., Osswald, S., & Brauer, M. (2010). "Playing prosocial video games increases empathy and decreases schadenfreude". Emotion, 10(6), 796–802.
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