Violent video games cause real-world violence
Violent video games are associated with modest increases in laboratory-measured aggression, but the link to real-world criminal violence is not established. The APA explicitly warns against attributing mass shootings to video games.
What we know
The debate over violent video games and real-world violence is one of the most studied, and most contested, questions in media psychology. Multiple meta-analyses, including those reviewed by an American Psychological Association task force in 2015 and a revised resolution in 2020, found a consistent positive association between violent game exposure and increases in aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, and aggressive affect in experimental and longitudinal studies. Effect sizes reported across four meta-analyses ranged from 0.08 to 0.19, small by conventional standards.
However, the same APA resolution explicitly stated that attributing violence, particularly mass shootings, to violent video game use is not scientifically sound. The link between violent games and criminal or lethal violence has not been established, in part because population-level data do not support the hypothesized relationship: countries with high rates of video game consumption do not show correspondingly high rates of violent crime, and US violent crime rates have generally declined as video game popularity has grown.
A 2020 peer-reviewed reanalysis in Perspectives on Psychological Science by Christopher Ferguson found that the original APA meta-analysis had methodological problems, including selective inclusion of studies and researcher expectancy effects, and that when corrected, the relationships with aggressive behavior were negligible. This finding does not fully resolve the debate but illustrates genuine scientific uncertainty about effect sizes.
The current scientific status is that video games are likely a minor risk factor for aggressive attitudes, comparable in magnitude to many other media and environmental factors, but are not a demonstrated cause of criminal violence. Attributing specific acts of violence to video games distorts public understanding and policy attention away from more significant risk factors.
Common claims
- Playing violent video games turns people into killers.False. No credible evidence links video games to criminal violence.
- Violent games have no effect on players whatsoever.Partly false. Small associations with aggressive cognitions and feelings are documented.
- Mass shooters played violent video games, so games caused the shooting.False. The APA explicitly states this reasoning is not scientifically valid.
Evidence hierarchy
All sources
- Resolution on Violent Video Games (2020 Revision)American Psychological Association · 2020
- APA Review Confirms Link Between Playing Violent Video Games and AggressionAmerican Psychological Association · 2015
- Reexamining the Findings of the APA Task ForcePerspectives on Psychological Science (PubMed) · 2020