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28 males between the ages of 22 and 23 were recruited for the test. Half consistently played an excessive amount of violent video games, the other half none at all. Those who played averaged almost five hours per day, starting from around six years of age.
The two studies conducted by the research group were very similar to one another. The test centered around the International Affective Picture System, a slide show of positive, negative, and neutral images, viewed while attached to a brain scanning device.
The bottom line is this: There was no discernible difference between respective groups in either study. Even excessive, habitual players of the most violent games on the market reacted with the same empathetic response as their non-gamer peers.
This is not the first time that those in power who wish to suppress personal freedom have attacked popular media, and it most certainly will not be the last. Research continues, as researchers attempt to divine any correlation between entertainment and resultant behavior, just as it did with movies, television, radio, and even books.
But attempting to scapegoat a form of expression for the choices that individuals make is as tired an argument as it is an old one. Once again, objective research suggests that while the video game industry makes for an easy and popular target, it is personal accountability that we truly require.— Nate Church
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