TOP psychologists have come out in defence of violent video games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto.
A huge survey of 21,000 youngsters around the world found that games – even those considered violent – do not lead to violence or aggression.
Politicians have long blamed blood, gore and drug-use in games for radicalising “disturbed minds” and promoting “sinister ideologies”.
Dozens of violent crimes, including mass shootings in the US, have been linked to the sick perpetrators’ gaming habits.
However, those views are not backed by science, according to a new study penned by an international team of researchers.
Experts trawled through data collected during dozens of studies into the possible link between violent video games and aggressive behaviour.
They found no significant evidence that games are a trigger for real-life violence.
“For decades, people have wondered if playing violent video games would have a long-term impact on aggression among players,” Professor Chris Ferguson, a psychologist at Stetson University in Florida, who led the study, told The Times.
“We found that, overall, the long-term relationship between playing aggressive games and players’ aggressive behaviour was very small and largely explained by poor practices in some studies rather than ‘real’ effects.
“For those studies with the best controlled methods, the effects of playing aggressive games were statistically indistinguishable from no effect at all.”
His team analysed 28 studies over the years involving around 21,000 young participants.
They looked at whether those who played video games for longer than three months experienced a rise in their aggressiveness.
The research also assessed how aggressiveness was rated in previous research to find out whether flaws in those papers led to infated results.
Study author Dr Aaron Drummond of Massey University in New Zealand said the results were clear.
“High-quality studies typically had effect sizes which were statistically indistinguishable from zero, implying no significant relationship between violent gameplay and aggression in the highest quality studies,” he said.
“Longer time periods were associated with smaller changes in aggression suggesting that, contrary to previous suggestions, violent gameplay does not cumulatively increase aggression over time.”
Dr Drummond called for greater use of pre-registration practices in future work on video games to help boost the quality of research in the area.
The study promises to finally put to rest the acrimonious debate on violent video games and qualm the fears of parents across the globe.