SAS
Can't get enough of FH
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2003
- Messages
- 1,004
Here is another study 'claiming' games are turning us into mindless thugs. This time we maybe programming our minds to think violently...
Have a scan of the study below and post your views. Do you think violently after playing games. Would you say you're a more violent person since becoming a gamer?
The Study
A German team studied 13 men aged between 18 and 26, who played games for an average of two hours a day. Brain mapping scans showed the same kind of activity as when people imagine being violent themselves, New Scientist reports.
They asked the men to play a violent game while their brain activity was monitored using magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning.
Dr Niels Birbaumer, from the University of Tubingen in Germany, suggested playing games regularly would strengthen certain circuits in the brain, and a regular player faced with a real life violent situation may be more likely to react aggressively. This could make games players "primed" for aggression.
Dr Guy Cumberbatch, head of the independent Communications Research Group in the UK, said: "If the findings in this study were the same as when people responded to imaginary situations, why is it any different to seeing violence in films or at the theatre?
"The problem is, it's very much a witch-hunt in relation to video games."
He added: "The instinct to punch someone on the nose is pretty basic. I don't think it is influenced in any way by playing these games."
The full article can be read here on the BBC.
Have a scan of the study below and post your views. Do you think violently after playing games. Would you say you're a more violent person since becoming a gamer?
The Study
A German team studied 13 men aged between 18 and 26, who played games for an average of two hours a day. Brain mapping scans showed the same kind of activity as when people imagine being violent themselves, New Scientist reports.
They asked the men to play a violent game while their brain activity was monitored using magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning.
Dr Niels Birbaumer, from the University of Tubingen in Germany, suggested playing games regularly would strengthen certain circuits in the brain, and a regular player faced with a real life violent situation may be more likely to react aggressively. This could make games players "primed" for aggression.
Dr Guy Cumberbatch, head of the independent Communications Research Group in the UK, said: "If the findings in this study were the same as when people responded to imaginary situations, why is it any different to seeing violence in films or at the theatre?
"The problem is, it's very much a witch-hunt in relation to video games."
He added: "The instinct to punch someone on the nose is pretty basic. I don't think it is influenced in any way by playing these games."
The full article can be read here on the BBC.