Based on two studies by researchers Craig A. Anderson of the University of Missouri-Columbia and Karen E. Dill of Lenoir-Rhyne College, the article claims that violent video games increase aggressive tendencies in the short term and can have long-lasting effects.
"Even brief exposure to violent video games can temporarily increase aggressive behaviour," the psychologists said in a statement.
A year ago, 13 people were killed and 23 wounded when two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, went on a killing spree that ended only when they turned their guns on themselves.
Because of the killers' penchant for playing the first-person shooting game "Doom," some believe violent video games should be blamed, at least in part, for the violence.
Two studies cited in support
The journal article outlines two psychology studies that support the theory of a link between playing violent video games and aggressive behaviour.
The first, involving 227 college students, measured the students' aggressive tendencies and linked those tendencies to the student's video-game playing habits.
"We found that students who reported playing more violent video games in junior and high school engaged in more aggressive behaviour," said Anderson, a psychologist. "We also found that amount of time spent playing video games in the past was associated with lower academic grades."
In the second study, 210 college students played either a violent video game ("Wolfenstein 3D") or a non-violent video game ("Myst"). Afterward, students were asked to punish an opponent with a noise blast. The study found that students who played the violent game tended to use longer bursts of noise.
"The second study showed the causality between violent video games and aggression," said Dill, who started the groundwork for the study in 1994.
Game makers: No comment
Epic Games, creator of the top-selling -- and violent -- "Unreal Tournament," and games publisher Electronic Arts, both refused comment.
"There hasn't been a lot of study of violent video games prior to this," Dill said, adding that she was surprised that in the 28 years that video games have been around more studies had not been done. "I hope the exposure to studies like this may convince people to do more research."
