"Orlando doesn’t shake belief that video games don’t cause violence"

[GSOgymrat]

When there is a tragedy people try to understand it and what often happens is they turn to their own narrative of what makes bad things happens. People who don't like violent video games say it is video games, people who don't like guns blame guns, people who don't like Obama blame Obama. People have their pet agendas.

I love reading articles about theories of motive of the Orlando shooter, like it is a big mystery. Even though he posted his motivation on social media and called law enforcement to explain why he was killing people some people just don't want to accept it. There is the self-hating homosexual theory, even though the FBI determined from cell phone signals, apps and all his digital data that he never was at Pulse, never downloaded gay porn, never texted a guy to hook up. Then there is the guy who says he hooked up with the shooter a dozen times and the motivation was revenge because Latin guys turned Mateen down and Mateen had sex with a man who he later realized was HIV+-- this guy claims to have known Mateen's motivation but never knew Mateen's name. Of course people can have more than one motive--Mateen hated homosexuals, he had a history of violence-- but it's interesting the motive couldn't possibly what he said, which was to support ISIS and Islam.

[SGOS]

I love reading articles about theories of motive of the Orlando shooter, like it is a big mystery. Even though he posted his motivation on social media and called law enforcement to explain why he was killing people some people just don't want to accept it.

This is not an uncommon response.  Sometimes people overthink things when they are overwhelmed.  They stop listening, and go into an internal dialog trying to make sense out of the strange, and in doing that, they can stop listening to others.  And then you've got the talking heads on the news, they are paid to have an opinion, so they try to come up with an opinion that's more creative than the opinions of the other talking heads.

[TrueStory]

The first article does mention them, and links the APA study that seems to suggest it might increase aggression while also acknowledging "insufficient research to link violent video game play to criminal violence".  The general picture is thus:  "The truth is that decades of research have turned up no reliable causal link between playing violent video games and perpetrating actual violence."

But for the sake of argument, let's say that it can be empirically proven that people who play Mortal Kombat are more likely to be violent.  What do we do, ban it?  Let's say that professional wrestling comes back with similar results.  Do we ban that?  MMA?  Violent movies?  War footage?  The evening news?

Just how far are we willing to go down this road?

I am blocked from reading the first article unfortunately.

It's not like it would have to be treated any different than all of the other things in life that could maybe potentially harm us but we don't know for sure, or that need moderation.  I don't see any reason to not have some caution with violent movies/games etc for small children, i think that most parents do. 

Maybe everyone is dismissing the over reaction specifically and i'm incorrectly interpreting that as a sweeping view.

[GSOgymrat]

There is an association between video games and aggression but not criminal violence. Are aggressive people attracted to violent video games, do video games affect player's behavior or is it some combination? Coincidentally, I just attended a training on assessing for violence and the two biggest predictors of future violent behavior are 1) a history of violent behavior and 2) alcohol or stimulant use. Use of violent videos games was dismissed as a risk factor by the forensic psychiatrist giving the training due to insufficient clinical evidence.

APA Review Confirms Link Between Playing Violent Video Games and Aggression

Finds insufficient research to link violent video game play to criminal violence

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2015/08/violent-video-games.aspx

WASHINGTON â€" Violent video game play is linked to increased aggression in players but insufficient evidence exists about whether the link extends to criminal violence or delinquency, according to a new American Psychological Association task force report.

“The research demonstrates a consistent relation between violent video game use and increases in aggressive behavior, aggressive cognitions and aggressive affect, and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy and sensitivity to aggression,” says the report of the APA Task Force on Violent Media. The task force’s review is the first in this field to examine the breadth of studies included and to undertake multiple approaches to reviewing the literature.

“Scientists have investigated the use of violent video games for more than two decades but to date, there is very limited research addressing whether violent video games cause people to commit acts of criminal violence,” said Mark Appelbaum, PhD, task force chair. “However, the link between violence in video games and increased aggression in players is one of the most studied and best established in the field.”

“No single risk factor consistently leads a person to act aggressively or violently,” the report states. “Rather, it is the accumulation of risk factors that tends to lead to aggressive or violent behavior. The research reviewed here demonstrates that violent video game use is one such risk factor.” ...

[Baruch]

Catastrophe theory, mathematically.  Same as a nervous breakdown or psychotic break.  Small persistent stress adds and adds, until the max capacity it exceeded.  No one thing did it, it was the combination.