Popular Blog Wildly Misinterprets News Report

A few hours ago, Joystiq posted about a study done by a BYU professor concerning the effect of violent scripture on aggressive behavior. It was originally posted at Gamepolitics.com, where Gamepolitics pointed out that one of the professors involved in the study, a Dr. Bushman from the University of Michigan, also did a study in 2005 on the effects of violent video games on aggression. So, naturally, Joystiq jumped to the following conclusion in an article titled "Study finds correlation between violent scripture and aggression, similar to games":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?I encourage anyone to go read the original news article published by the Deseret News (out of Salt Lake City.) Let me know if you find where the parties involved in the study mention video games. Oh, that's right... THEY DON'T! Where Joystiq claims that Dr. Ridge said that "he believes most games lack this overarching theme of harmony" you will not find that quote in any of the published information about the study.But for some reason, Joystiq took a completely unrelated psychological study and made it about video games by making up quotes and drawing a correlation where the original authors did not intend one. Can we please not get defensive whenever there's a link between violent media and violent people? There is no agenda here. There is no conspiracy. This isn't phase one of a master plan to demonize video games.Look, as video gamers, we have a enough problems trying to fight off Jack Thompson, Hilary Rodham Clinton, and Joe Leiberman, we don't need to bring this on ourselves. Thanks, Joystiq, once again, your editorial standards really shine.[In Gamepolitics' defense, they merely state, as does the Deseret News that the study could "have implications in the ongoing debate over the effects of video game violence." True, but there's no reason to misquote and yell CONSPIRACY THEORY.]By: George Walker at February 28, 2007 05:15 PM

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