Violent Video Games Not So Bad When Players Cooperate

David Ewoldsen, professor of communication, is co-author of two new studies suggesting that people who play violent video games together as a team rather than against each other show more cooperative and less aggressive behavior.

In two studies, researchers found that college students who teamed up to play violent video games later showed more cooperative behavior, and sometimes less signs of aggression, than students who played the games competitively.

One study was recently published online in the journal Communication Research, and will appear in a future print edition. The second related study was published recently in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.

The results suggest that it is too simplistic to say violent video games are always bad for players, said Ewoldsen. "Clearly, research has established there are links between playing violent video games and aggression, but that's an incomplete picture."

 “Most of the studies finding links between violent games and aggression were done with people playing alone. The social aspect of today’s video games can change things quite a bit,” said Ewoldsen.

Read the entire press release, courtesy of Jeff Grabmeier, senior director of research and innovation, office of research and innovation communications
http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/violcoop.htm