Societal Violence and Video Games: Public Statements
of a Link are Problematic
Journalists and policy makers do their con-
stituencies a disservice in cases where they link
acts of real-world violence with the perpetrators
exposure to violent video games or other violent
media. Theres little scientific evidence to support
the connection, and it may distract us from ad-
dressing those issues that we know contribute to
real-world violence.
Criminologists who study mass homicides,
in their analyses of such crimes, have either ex-
cluded the issue of video games (Lankford, 2013),
or explicitly referred to links between violent
games and mass homicides as a myth (Fox &
DeLateur, 2014). Yet, very commonly, after
young males commit high-profile acts of violence,
politicians and news media may speculatively
link such crimes to violent video games or other
violent media. Such claims are not based on re-
search evidence and these claims may distract so-
ciety from more substantive causes of violence,
such as poverty, lack of treatment options for
mental health as well as crime victimization
among the mentally ill, and educational and em-
ployment disparities. With this statement, Divi-
sion 46 (the American Psychological Associa-
tions division for Media Psychology and Tech-
nology) advises policy makers, community offi-
cials, and news media to not attribute or insinuate
blame for acts of violence on video games or oth-
er fictional media.
Mass Shootings and Video Games
A wide body of research has examined the
impact of violent video games on relatively minor
acts of aggression, such as the administration of
unwanted hot sauce to make food too spicy, mak-
ing someone put their hand in freezing ice water
or bursts of white noise in laboratory experiments.
These studies have varied in outcome, with some
finding evidence for effects, and others not finding
such evidence. Further, the validity of these measures
of aggression remains debated (Ritter & Eslea, 2005;
Tedeschi & Quigley, 1996). Whether such studies
provide conclusive evidence for a relationship be-
tween violent video games and these minor forms of
aggression remains a matter of reasonable debate
(Anderson et al., 2010; Ferguson, 2015a; Hilgard et al,
in press; Kanamori & Doi, 2016; Sherry, 2007). We
note that even among members of American Psycho-
logical Association Division 46 Society for Media
Psychology and Technology, opinions regarding the
impact of media violence on aggression differ consid-
erably. It would be entirely reasonable for a scholar to
argue that some links between violent media and ag-
gression may exist, just as it is also reasonable for a
scholar to argue that links between violent media and
aggression do not exist. This document therefore fo-
cuses upon the less publicized, more scientifically
sound view that little evidence exists that playing vio-
lent videogames produces violent criminal behavior.
Scant evidence has emerged that makes any causal or
correlational connection between playing violent vid-
eo games and actually committing violent activities.
The views here are those of Division 46 (Society for
Media Psychology and Technology) of the American
Psychological Association and do not represent an offi-
cial position of APA. APAs official position on this
issue is the Resolution on Violent Video Games that
was adopted as policy by the Council of Representa-
tives in August of 2015 and can be accessed at the fol-
lowing URL: http://www.apa.org/about/policy/violent-
video-games.aspx. This policy was based on a tech-
nical report written by the APA Task Force on Violent
Media that can be accessed at the following URL:
http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/08/
violent-video-games.aspx.
 By contrast, research evidence available to date
indicates that violent video games have minimal im-
pact on violent activity in society. Correlational and
longitudinal studies of youth suggest that violent vid-
eo game exposure does not meaningfully predict
youth physical aggression or violent crime (DeCamp,
2015; Przybylski & Mishkin, 2016; Surette & Maze,
2015; Ybarra et al., 2008). Some research has sug-
gested that youth with more aggressive personalities
may seek out violent games; however, violent games
do not increase assaultive behavior among such youth
(Breuer et al., 2015). Further, little clear evidence has
emerged that youth identified as at risk due to ele-
vated mental health symptoms are influenced to be-
come more aggressive due to exposure to violent vid-
eo games (Ferguson & Olson, 2014; Engelhardt et al.,
2015.) Further, evidence from societal data examining
video game violence use has yet to document that
such use is predictive of violent crime (Ferguson,
2015b; Cunningham et al., 2016; Markey, Markey &
French, 2015). Similar absence of predictive relation-
ships has been observed for violent movies (Dahl &
DellaVigna, 2009; Markey, French & Markey, 2015.)
Further, analyses of mass homicide perpetra-
tors themselves have not identified substantial links
with violent video games. A 2002 analysis by the US
Secret Service (United States Secret Service and Unit-
ed States Department of Education, 2002) suggested
that school shooters tended to consume relatively low
amounts of violent media compared to normative lev-
els for same-age peers. This finding does not mean
that if violence-prone youth watched more violent vid-
eos, then they would be less likely to be violent. This
finding simply means that no link has been found be-
tween school shooters and their videogame habits.
Why Do Perceptions of Links Persist?
Efforts to link violent crimes to violent video
games and other media may persist due to a well-
known phenomenon called confirmation bias or the
tendency to pay attention only to information that con-
firms prior beliefs and ignore that which does not. As
such, when a perpetrator is a young male, news media
and policy makers often pay extraordinary attention to
their media habits.
However, when a perpetrator is an older male or,
more rarely, a female, the issue of media violence
is typically ignored. By attending to only those
cases that fit the assumption that violent media ex-
posure is universal among criminal perpetrators
and ignoring those cases that conflict with this nar-
rative, the perception of a correlation can take hold
where no such correlation exists. This selective
reporting may create the impression that there is
suitable evidence to link violence and media con-
sumption, despite the existence of any clear evi-
dence. Laypeople whose only source of infor-
mation on this topic is the media are particularly
susceptible to believing this narrative. Selective
attention may also fail to observe that the correla-
tion between youth violence and violent video
game use in society is an inverse one, with youth
violence declining by over 80% during the decades
in which violent game use soared (Ferguson,
2015b.) Of course, violent behavior is complex,
and not only one pathway toward violent behavior
exists. However, we note that news medias atten-
tion to data from individual acts of violent crime is
often selective, ignoring larger complexities.
These days, just about every childboth
boys and girlsplays video games (Olson, 2010).
Discovering that a young crime perpetrator also
happened to play violent video games is no more
illustrative than discovering that they happened to
wear sneakers, or used to watch Sesame Street.
This is a classic error: trying to predict something
rare, such as a violent crime, by looking at some-
thing common, such as playing violent video
games or, for that matter, drinking milk. Further,
confirmation bias (Yeo et al., 2015) has often re-
sulted in the preservation of this false belief.
There have been several shooters who were initial-
ly linked to playing violent games, yet upon inves-
tigative review were found to be minimal consum-
ers (Virginia Tech Review Panel, 2007; States
Attorney for the Judicial District of Danbury,
2013). These include the perpetrator of the 2007
mass shooting on the Virginia Tech campus, who .
was found to have no notable exposure to violent
games, despite initial claims to the contrary, and the
perpetrator of the 2012 mass shooting on the Sandy
Hook elementary campus, who, although he was re-
ported to have several outdated action-oriented games
in his home, was reported by witnesses to mainly play
non-violent games such as Dance, Dance Revolution.
Recommendations:
Given that the weight of research evidence is
unable to support links between violent video games
or other violent media and societal violence, the News
Media, Public Education, and Public Policy Commit-
tee of the American Psychological Association Divi-
sion 46 The Society for Media Psychology & Tech-
nology make the following recommendations, which
may help to inform adequately the public.
1) Public officials and news media should
avoid stating explicitly or implicitly that criminal of-
fenses were caused by violent media. This would ex-
tend to implicit language such as it was as if they
were playing a video game or the offender was ob-
sessed with violent video games.
2) Public officials and news media should
refrain from erroneous statements implying all perpe-
trators of a particular class (such as school shooters)
have been influenced by violent video games or other
media. Similarly, comparisons of media effects re-
search with medical effects research (e.g. suggesting
that the public health threats presented by media are
similar in magnitude as those presented by cigarettes
or other well-known health risks) is unwarranted.
3) Scholarly organizations, such as the
American Psychological Association, when asked
about video games or media and criminal events,
should state explicitly that research in this area is on-
going; rather than having demonstrated clear effects.
At present, it could be reasonable to argue both for or
against relationships between violent media and ag-
gression. However, for violent crime, a research base
linking crime to violent media is lacking and discon-
firmatory evidence too abundant to assert the presence
of links.
4) Should discussions of media effects
extend to aggression rather than violence
news media, and reporters should solicit views
from scholars on both sides of the media effects
debate to give the public a well-rounded view of
the issue. Public figures are well advised to recall
that while violence refers to a narrow class of be-
haviors intended to cause serious physical harm,
aggression is a much broader category of behav-
iors, including many very mild behaviors and
some (such as sports aggression, competition, or
debating) that are socially sanctioned. Hearing
both sides of the debate permits viewers to make
up their own minds. News media should also be
careful to differentiate the type of abstract
aggression typically studied in laboratory (e.g.,
the administration of hot sauce, ice water, bursts of
white noise, responses on a questionnaire) experi-
ments from the physical aggression and violence
typically of interest to the general public.
5) Public officials, news media, and
scholarly organizations (such as APA) would do
well to focus on scientifically valid substantive
causes of violence ranging from poverty to mental
health issues to educational and social disparities.
Focusing on video games or other media can dis-
tract from real causes of violence and do harm.
6) News media would benefit from
remembering that discovering a young male perpe-
trator of a crime also happened to play violent vid-
eo games or watch violent movies is not remarka-
ble given the commonness of such media use
among young males. Such disclosures should not
be treated as significant, or as causes.
News Media, Public Education and Public Poli-
cy Committee:
Dana Klisinan, Jerri Lynn Hogg, June Wilson,
Patrick Markey, Malte Elson, Jimmy Ivory,
Deborah Linebarger, Mary Gregerson,
Shahbaz Siddiqui, Chris Ferguson
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