Much ado about nothing: The misestimation and overinterpretation of violent video game effects in Eastern and Western nations: Comment on Anderson et al. (2010).

Abstract

The issue of violent video game influences on youth violence and aggression remains intensely debated in the scholarly literature and among the general public. Several recent meta-analyses, examining outcome measures most closely related to serious aggressive acts, found little evidence for a relationship between violent video games and aggression or violence. In a new meta-analysis, C. A. Anderson et al. (2010) questioned these findings. However, their analysis has several methodological issues that limit the interpretability of their results. In their analysis, C. A. Anderson et al. included many studies that do not relate well to serious aggression, an apparently biased sample of unpublished studies, and a "best practices" analysis that appears unreliable and does not consider the impact of unstandardized aggression measures on the inflation of effect size estimates. They also focused on bivariate correlations rather than better controlled estimates of effects. Despite a number of methodological flaws that all appear likely to inflate effect size estimates, the final estimate of r = .15 is still indicative of only weak effects. Contrasts between the claims of C. A. Anderson et al. (2010) and real-world data on youth violence are discussed.

Links to Prosocial Factors and Alpha Asymmetry in Adolescents during Violent and Non-Violent Video Game Play

“…Support for this claim is strengthened by findings from longitudinal (Williams & Skoric, 2005) and other published meta-analytic studies that show little to no relationship between violent video game play and aggression (Ferguson, 2007;Savage & Yancey, 2008;Ferguson & Kilburn, 2010).…”

A Vast Graveyard of Undead Theories

“…In their recent analysis of video game violence (Anderson et al, 2010), the authors were found to have selectively included unpublished studies of their own, as well as those of close colleagues and collaborators, while failing to solicit unpublished studies from groups with a differing perspective on video game effects, despite sometimes being in contact with those other groups on other matters (C. J. Ferguson & Kilburn, 2010). Similarly, their coding of methodological quality selectively missed the important issue of measurement standardization and quality that is known to spuriously inflate effect size estimates in this field (C. J.…”

Effects of Media Ratings on Children and Adolescents: A Litmus Test of the Forbidden Fruit Effect

“…On the one side there is research that indicates that the effects are nonexistent or low (e.g., Ferguson & Kilburn, 2010;Savage & Yancey, 2008;Sherry, 2001Sherry, , 2007. Other studies, however, did find a relationship between children's exposure to harmful (e.g., violent) media content and the development of undesirable attitudes and behaviors, violent behaviors in particular (e.g., Bushman & Huesmann, 2001;Earles, Alexander, Johnson, Liverpool, & McGhee, 2002;Hogben, 1998;Huesmann, 2007;Konijn, Nije Bijvank, & Bushman, 2006;Paik & Comstock, 1994).…”