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Study: Violent Games Don’t Cause Violent Behavior

Uh-oh. It's another blow to the anti-game activists who believe the industry will eventually produce ten million serial killers.

One researcher from the University of Texas A&M recently sent GamePolitics his study dealing with violent video games and aggressive behavior, and as it turns out, he found very little evidence linking the two. Christopher Ferguson, PhD is part of the university's department of behavioral, applied sciences and criminal justice, and this study was a "meta-analysis" that attempted to establish a positive correlation between exposure to violent video games and aggressive behavior. And while the results show that those violent games can indeed increase the frequency of aggressive thoughts , it doesn't necessarily cause aggressive behavior .

This makes a great deal of sense, logically speaking. All forms of entertainment have a chance of altering how we think (temporarily), and what our "thoughts" are. The crucial point of this study is that it in no way supports the theory that playing violent video games will result in violent behavior. Nothing is 100%, but hey, at least this is one for our side.