Its official! Playing violent games lead to aggression

The theory that playing violent video games can lead to aggression after all!

Mark Appelbaum of the APA Task force said that the link between violence in video games and increased aggression in players was one of the most studied and best established in the field.

The report stated that no single risk factor consistently lead a person to act aggressively or violently, it was the accumulation of risk factors that tends to lead to aggressive or violent behaviour.

The task force identified a number of limitations in the research that require further study. These include a general failure to look for any differences in outcomes between boys and girls who play violent video games; a dearth of studies that have examined the effects of violent video game play on children younger than 10; and a lack of research that has examined the games' effects over the course of children's development.

The task force conducted a comprehensive review of the research literature published between 2005 and 2013 focused on violent video game use. They then conducted both a systematic evidence review and a quantitative review of the literature published between 2009 and 2013.

This resulted in 170 articles, 31of which met all of the most stringent screening criteria.

Appelbaum said that the picture presented by this research was more complex than is usually included in news coverage and other information prepared for the general public.