Study finds correlation between violent scripture and aggression, similar to games
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Feb 28th 2007 at 2:26PM }
See where this is going? Now even the Bible can make us do it, so obviously video games can. Here's the catch: "We're not saying that just in and of itself violent media is uniformly bad but oftentimes there is no redeeming context to it. If one reads the scriptures with an understanding of context, both historical as well as with a (desire) to hear what God is trying to teach us, you can read it in a different way." What BYU professor Robert Ridge seems to imply is that, when taken in context, the Bible ultimately teaches one to pursue peace and love; whereas, he believes most games lack this overarching theme of harmony. Discerning Bible studiers can actually decrease their aggression -- as for active gamers, well, not so much.The new study, which determined "aggression" by how loud a subject chose to blast an obnoxious sound in another subject's ears, is co-written by University of Michigan psychologist Brad Bushman. Bushman was a member of the American Psychological Association's Committee on Violence in Video Games and Interactive Media when in August 2005 the group issued a report linking violent games to increased aggression. Hmmm ... smell an agenda?
[Thanks, Dave]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
sheppy @ Feb 28th 2007 2:31PM
I think I can see where he's comng from. In fact, while playing the latest EA release, my puppy started to whine about needing to use the restroom, or eating, or something. So I broke his neck and dropkicked him off the balcony into the pool...
sheppy @ Feb 28th 2007 2:32PM
It should be noted that was violent for me. Normally I don't aim for the pool...
Je2037 @ Feb 28th 2007 2:41PM
Games that are just violent and have no decent gameplay, suck terribly. The main reason people play games is for a fun challenge, no matter what it looks like on the surface. I don't deny that some people might play violent video games because they actually enjoy the violence for the violence beyond a 'whoa that was cool' thing, but if those kind of people weren't playing out their fantasies in a game, what do you think they'd be doing? Probably drop-kicking dogs.
Gimbal @ Feb 28th 2007 2:43PM
Yorkies deserve it. Can I get an a-men?
john @ Feb 28th 2007 2:45PM
http://gamepolitics.com/2007/02/27/new-research-sees-correlation-between-violent-bible-passages-and-aggression/
sheppy @ Feb 28th 2007 2:47PM
It wasn't a dog, it was a puppy. When those bastards get too big, you'd break your leg drop kicking them.
Joseph Smith @ Feb 28th 2007 2:54PM
The source used for this piece is from Birmingham Young University (BYU)? So what you are saying is Mormon's now have the inside scoop on scripture. PLEASE!!! I smell the occult written all over it. And a worldly psychologist is going to discern spiritual truth? James ~ wake up! Bad article, very bad. . .
rip @ Feb 28th 2007 2:59PM
Religion has directly caused hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Until video games cause even 100 deaths, these people need to put a sock in it.
Rabish12 @ Feb 28th 2007 2:59PM
"The new study, which determined "aggression" by how loud a subject chose to blast an obnoxious sound in another subject's ears"
It was at this point that I stopped caring. Next time, they should try tracking aggression with something legitimate (like body chemistry or, you know, ACTUAL AGGRESIVE BEHAVIOR) rather than tracking obnoxious sound-making.
If this study proves anything it's that violent video games make you more annoying, not more aggressive.
billychaos @ Feb 28th 2007 3:05PM
In response to number 8, "Religion has directly caused hundreds of thousands of deaths"...Try Millions of deaths. Think about the history of all religion...Think about the lives lost in the crusades, conversion (or attempt of) of native americans, ...the spanish inquisition.
Jake @ Feb 28th 2007 3:17PM
@8, millions actually. But not directly. It is often hijacked and used to get people to commit terrible acts they usually wouldn't. It also helps alleviate the fear of death, making a subject more willing to jump into harm's way. Most religions are based on a scripture, which is almost always very peaceful and passive.
@9 Birmingham is in Alabama. BYU is in Utah. BYU stands for Bringham, not Birmingham. I can't check because my internet is blocked from that site.
@3, je2037. Dude, all games with crappy gameplay suck. Violence in a game has nothing to do with quality; though it may affect the demographic of people it appeals to. Gears is super violent and pretty much was GoTY by most standards. Okami, Oblivion, and Z:TP are also violent, though less realistically, and did quite well. Actually, most good games are violent.
sheppy @ Feb 28th 2007 3:18PM
Don't turn this into a religious debate! Instead of thinking religious or anti-religious thoughts, just put a mental image of werewolf gnawing off his own arm to avoid a date with Britney Spears....
Depot @ Feb 28th 2007 3:30PM
Dr. Bushman was a member of the APA's committee because of his prior research into the link between violent video games and aggression. The "agenda" you speak of is the APA trying to assemble a panel of experts in the field.
Crono @ Feb 28th 2007 3:20PM
Yeah #10, lets not forget the millions of jews that were slaughtered in the name of religion...
Oh wait, they were slaughtered because hitler thought they were evolutionarily inferior to his master race.
I guess if someone wants to kill people, they'll find a reason, religious or not.
Crono @ Feb 28th 2007 3:23PM
LOL at that mental image, sheppy :)
Jake @ Feb 28th 2007 3:26PM
Too add to my #8 comment, after seeing #10.
Religion isn't making people do these terrible things. That is an illusion. Politics and people with power and greed are making them do these things. Religion is just a tool that helps allow a small group of people to get a large group to allow terrible acts to be commited, or even participate.
Without religion, man would have found a different way to convince people to commit murder. Heck, many modern militaries do it by making being a soldier a job and something you do for your country, rather than a god. Your country is your god, in that case.
It just comes down to the 90 10 rule. 10% of people ruin the world for the other 90%. Not some books a few dudes wrote a thousand years ago. Many people have a hard time grasping this concept, even though history makes it very evident.
George @ Apr 2nd 2007 12:39PM
Can we get a source for the BYU comments besides the mysterious "Dave"? Or did you actually call up BYU yourselves and interview Prof. Ridge?
Brandon @ Feb 28th 2007 3:51PM
Just say religion made me do it. The big figureheads you see that are devoutly Christian all do things that would be considered "morally" wrong. GWbush went to war, and Pat Robinson prayed to god to kill people on the supreme court to make way for more conservative people. I'd say that religion can make you do very bad things. Look at the crusades, Spanish Inquisition, Salem Witch Trials. They have very similar reasons.
Jeremiah Wood @ Mar 2nd 2007 3:51PM
Amen to your comment, Jake. I absolutely agree.
Viridium @ Feb 28th 2007 4:00PM
CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSALITY!
Perhaps violently natured people seek out and actively play violent video games - it's just as plausible that a violent nature leads to violent video game playing than violent video game playing leading to a violent nature.
There's probably a correlation between people playing video games and people with dark hair. Does that imply that video games cause people to have dark hair?
KirbyMeister @ Feb 28th 2007 4:33PM
Thanks a lot, Robert Ridge. You've just helped make psychology lose more credability in the eyes of the gaming public.
Can we just accept that 'media effects' studies are nothing more than a justification for xenophobia of new media or technology?
idioteraser @ Feb 28th 2007 5:06PM
Number 13 don't listen to so called Christian Conservatives who routinely rewrite History.
Anybody that actually lived in that time as well as those who have made an honest effort to study the time will tell you Hitler had no interest in evolution nor did evolutionary biology have anything to do with a Master race.
In fact overwhelmingly those that supported the Eugenics movement were what we would call conservative Christians who were opposed to the teaching of evolution.
Also you have to take in the pogroms that occured throughout history directed by Christians against the Jews.
You must honestly beleive that the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear was an invention by the Nazis. In fact it has been put on Jews numerous times throughout European history.
Why do you think the Jews willingly accepted being put into the Ghettos and having their rights removed till a few years in the death camps made some of them fight?
Because the Jews had a long sense of history and they were seeing the same old same old. Everything the Nazis did to the Jews had been done before by Christians hundreds of times. The Nazis however were more determined. Why do you think it was called the Final Solution? Because numerous other attempts to wipe out the Jews always got halted or were inefficant.
I could go on smashing your attempt to smear but I need to get back to the topic at hand.
There have been several studies that show bible passages or any religious scripture can cause aggression. Listen to an Iman or other fundie-like Pastor talk about homosexuals and I will bet you certain audience members if they were in a group would like nothing more to encounter a lone gay person with no one else around.
Lee Roy Brandon III @ Feb 28th 2007 5:07PM
Back in the 80's, the slightly Marxist band "McCarthy" wrote a rather catchy song entitled "Should the Bible be Banned?", which was about a man on trial for murdering his brother after reading the Biblical story od Cain and Abel. The song itself, I believe, was based on an actual court case in England at the time...
By the way, the guitarist went on to found Stereolab, which is pound for pound likely the most gadgety band out there, famous for their use of electronic manipulations.
Jake @ Feb 28th 2007 5:20PM
"I'd say that religion can make you do very bad things. Look at the crusades, Spanish Inquisition, Salem Witch Trials. They have very similar reasons."
This is where you and I will probably always disagree. I believe that when Hitler amassed a massively powerful army, slaughtered Jews, and put the world into chaos it had little or nothing to do with religion. When the Spanish Monarchy carried out the Spanish Inquisition it apparently had everything to do with religion (keeping orthodox catholics practicing the same as each other or something to that nature, I think).
But, I classify them as the same thing. A small group of evil people expanding on a shared perception to get others to commit acts of atrocity, often to the benefit of the group making it happen.
I don't believe that Religion makes you do evil things. It is simply a tool that can be utilized by others to help make you do evil things by justifying the acts. It can also be utilized to make you do good things. People don't just spontaneously start killing eachother over religion. They must be convinced over days, weeks, months, and even years why they actually want to commit murder and that it is okay. Religion is often cited.
The US has never really cited religion as a reason for our wars, and look how many we have been in. Whether you feel we are justified or not, we always cite the defense of ourselves, even when we aren't yet being attacked. If Bush told us to go to war over religion he'd be impeached and maybe soon dead. They got WMD's, oh, let's kick their ass.
To understand how the world works, you really need to understand history. War and genocide really is whack ass leaders leading their relatively sane populations into acts of mass murder. That is why the government always has to take a few weeks or months or more to convince us that a war is justified. These things don't just happen. We have to be manipulated into it.
Nobody wants to kill and die. But the leaders of our countries want to send us to kill eachother and die for them. We just need them to give us a way to justify it for our conscience's sake.
The day a world leader thinks a war is necessary and volunteers themself and their entire family to the front line is the day I will consider standing right alongside him. Hoo-rah! In the meantime, your chances of convincing me to go overseas to murder other humans while they try to murder me are pretty damn slim. No matter how you sugar coat it, that's a tough pill to swallow.
And please don't take this as I am anti-American. I am quite patriotic. I don't believe our leaders are any more evil than those of other countries, it is just our leaders have the power to influence the world, often through war, so they use it more. Remember what France did when they were really powerful? They were nasty. Listen to them now.
Religion is only a tool.
btw, does that Mass Effect game look sweet or what?
Friendly Alien @ Feb 28th 2007 7:05PM
Religion doesn't kill people. People kill people.
Video Games don't kill people. People kill people.
Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
So, that begs the question: what the hell's wrong with you people?!
reppy @ Feb 28th 2007 7:05PM
I would agree that violent video games can cause a rise in aggression while playing them. It's the long-term effects that I'm most skeptical of.
Ever been to a death metal concert? Ever feel like kicking someone's ass? Yeah, apparently everyone else does, too; thus, we have mosh pits.
Doesn't anyone remember seeing an awesome kung fu flick as a kid and thinking you were a ninja?
Thomas @ Feb 28th 2007 7:19PM
Reppy (#26), I totally get that. When I was much younger--like, in single digits--my little brother and I would watch martial arts movies, and we would just go nuts when the fight scenes started up. When all the bad guys were knocked out we would sit back down, sweating and breathing hard from all the jumping around and hollering. Good times, good times...
A E, I O U... Y @ Feb 28th 2007 8:15PM
Jake has the right idea on the religion thing. Anyone that has actually read their Bible knows that "Thou shalt not murder" (Ex 20:13) means just that, and that "The one who loves violence, God's soul certainly hates" (Ps 11:5). And so on...
As for violence in media. Obviously it has some effect, otherwise it would be unreasonable for so many companies to dish as much money as they do into incorporating sex/violence into their messages. If they didn't believe it did something, they wouldn't spend the money (especially not in the quantities they do), period.
Brandon @ Feb 28th 2007 8:26PM
It may be a small group that ruins it for many people, thus the 90 10 rule posted above. However when those 10 get power over the 90, say President, or King (old times) they spread their evil which can be derived from their religious views. Thus the reasons why we have some of these horrible crimes committed in our history.
Brandon @ Feb 28th 2007 8:34PM
Ok I mis read Jake's comment. I never meant that we went to war over religion. Although according to his religion we should never had gone to war in the first place.
On a side note though WMDs are not the reason it was oil and the profit of his friend's companies. (i.e. Halaburtion or however it is spelled).
John @ Feb 28th 2007 9:36PM
Why attack our reason for being here?
Becuase a bunch of Chrstians who don't care about those suffering in this world decide to attack our art form they decide to attack the bible?
EXACTLY
Jesus loves you all.......the rest of us think you're assholes
idioteraser @ Mar 1st 2007 8:18AM
I believe that when Hitler amassed a massively powerful army, slaughtered Jews, and put the world into chaos it had little or nothing to do with religion. Number 24 needs to do more research. Religion was used by the Nazis and the churches supported him.
Communists btw are not anti-religious. Most of the rank and file communits in Latin America were Christians fighting against tyrannical goverments that often killed Christians and indigenous natives. Or the natives were fighting against a Christian goverment that was in the process of commiting genocide against them.
"The Army doesn't massacre the Indians. It massacres demons, and the Indians are demon possessed; they are communists. We hold Brother Efraín Ríos Montt like King David of the Old Testament. He is the king of the New Testament."
If you think that was said during the time before the 20th century perhaps during the 1600s you would be severly mistaken.
icicle0424 @ Feb 28th 2007 10:52PM
religion/videogames make you violent
sticking feathers up your butt makes you a chicken
spoons made me fat
watching barney will make you a 5 year old
I hate this kinda stuff... folk's like whacky Jack try to get games banned because they can somehow (no matter how illogically) tie it to some crime... If we did that we'd eventually ban everything. If some nut killed some people and claimed he recieved the messages to do so from the talking disembodied head of Mayor McCheese, should we ban fast food?
Gamers get it, (some) non-gamers don't, perhaps there's some correlation between gaming and being able to use your gray matter... I'd like to see some politician try to make videogames mandatory, but the guv'ment don't want us to be doin' no thinkin' naw...
/sarcasm
GhaleonQ @ Mar 1st 2007 12:05AM
I appreciate all of the intelligent users in this topic.
jaysins @ Mar 1st 2007 12:48AM
I like the maturity of this thread. Anyways Hitler was a Christian according to himself and was brought up a Roman Catholic where he then became Christian. I know many Christians would argue that saying he's not a true Christian but it is what it is.
Hitler, according to his many written works and speeches, believed in Christ and the bible. He ofter spoke of "positive christianity." This is the assertion that Jesus was more proactive and almost, if not, militant. He hided the true meaning of his plans under the guise of "positive." There's a word that makes everyone feel good inside right? He eventually got people to really believe in his vision of life and the world and once he had their support he unleashed his true goals and desires when his supporters were at their weakest and most susceptible to persuasion. Kind of like how Scientology leads you by sounding positive and like a really good lifestyle that can help you in your personal life and when your sucked in and brainwashed you really find out what it is about.
I said all at to get to this. You have a person like Hitler who is smart and charismatic enough to be likable and to realize the situation he is put in is ideal to spread his beliefs. The German people were poor, hungry and desperate. Hitler came with hope and answers to their problems and why they were getting punished. He, knew the power of religion and was able to manipulate it to fit his agenda. Same of what is happening in many other parts of the world right now. Religion isn't bad but it's a very very powerful tool for doing bad things, thought great things as well. Not just Christianity but all religion. You have these radicals that either think that they truly are blessed and have all the answers and must spread their word, or you have those which know the power of religion and will use it to push their will upon others. It's even happening here in the US. Evangelical Christian movement is a scary thing. These people are bad news and disguise their true motives under the veil of Christianity so their true intentions go unnoticed and they can come off as good and righteous. Religion isn't bad, it just can corrupt those who cannot handle it. More so than a video game that's for sure.
steve17 @ Mar 1st 2007 3:55AM
yeah i heard about this bullshit a long time ago. they had people sit down and choose how load to make a sound in another person's ear by pushing a button. they did it first. then had them play return to castle wolfenstien(kick ass game) and had them do it again. they ALLEDGED that after playing wolfenstien they chose to make the sound louder. what the hell does that prove?
i have been bored and miscievious many a time and cruised around town with some friends blowing airhorns at perdestrians. LOL. but now they are gonna say video games (specifically wolfenstien) made me do it?
am i the only one who honestly laughs out loud and gets extremely angry by how much bullshit these rediculus "professionals" claim to "discovering" about video games and violence.
if i had a PHD and had the ability to publish things in the wallstreet journal i could blame spoons for making people fat! (and people would believe it) is the world getting more stupid by the second?
steve17 @ Mar 1st 2007 4:34AM
#24, jake. u are mostly right. not quite spot on about hitler actually using religion as a tool though. it was quite a large tool in his box.
after ww1 germany(a prodominently christian country) was in mass caos. restrictions from ther victors of ww1 (us) where in effect. their country was having a very hard time recovering. also we placed military restrictions on them. oooo germany didnt like that very much. germany, at least back in those days, has alot of national pride. they didnt feel they deserved to be poverty stricken and at the ass of europe. they were frustrated and didnt know how to fix it.
and history teaches us that when people dont know who to blame. they find a convenient scapegoat(kinda like this whole issue with video games) but who u ask? JEWS!!! its a traditional rule of christian morality that we should not make a profit from our depts. but in judaism there is no such moral rule. they blamed the jews for contributing to the overall poverty of the country.
hitler also went through schools and, well, everyplace, and established physical traits of the "pure" specimens of the "superior gene pool". jews didnt fit the bill.
so, yes, while religion wasnt neccissarily the reason for ww2. it was a trick up hitlers sleeve to unite his people to put them back on top where they thought they belonged.
national unity, weather good, or bad, is a very VERY powerful thing. when your entire country is behind you u can do amazing, yet terrible, but amazing nontheless. germany is the size of montana(my state) and it took the combined power of the U.S. russia and england to defeat them.
when your scared and brainwashed by religious egotystical bullshit only something terrible can come of it.
Je2037 @ Mar 1st 2007 9:50AM
Damn I check back on this topic and some type of deep religious historical debate seems to have taken place. @ Jake about my comments, I enjoy violent video games, but not because they are violent. My point was that people don't play games for the violence.
Ray Balhorn @ Mar 1st 2007 1:13PM
@#11
its actually Brigham not Bringham, and yes its in Utah.
Id like to look at the actual report because it sounds like its just his opinion but there might actually be some data (probably sparse and inconclusive mind you) to it.
Jeremiah Wood @ Mar 2nd 2007 4:08PM
Oh, the hostility! Sometimes you could just cut the tension around here with a knife... By the way, if Hitler was a "Christian," then from a Christian view point, I can tell you that he's definitely in Hell now.
"Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'"
(Jesus, Matthew 7:22-23)
Just because somebody claims and believes that they're a Christian doesn't mean that they are, and they definitely don't represent us as a whole. Also, for those of you that think you understand what Christians stand for and say things like "according to his religion we should never had gone to war in the first place," obviously have no clue. There were many, many wars that were started throughout the Bible, and not one of them is condemned. Read here:
There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
For the issue of war, read the last line. This is a reasonable observation of human nature. War happens. Some things happen that don't make you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. It would be illogical to say that there shouldn't be debates, because, as far as I know, as long as there are people there are going to be different ideas, as long as there are different ideas there's going to be debates, and as long as their are debates there's going to be war. It would be ridiculous to say that war shouldn't happen: It does. It sucks, yes; but sometimes it's necessary to bring forth peace.
Like freedom, peace isn't free. It would be great if you could achieve peace without disagreeing, but that's not the world that we live in. Somebody will always have a different idea.
Back on topic: Obviously not all Christians are opposed to video games. Heck, let's be honest; not all non-Christians are for games. Why single out the Christians? Some like them, some don't. Some twist scripture to fit their ideology to prove their own point (which is wrong) but many more do not.