Much Ado About Nothing
In a radio interview on 2SER a Dr Christopher Ferguson has criticised the moral panic that is currently surrounding video games in Australia. (The interview can be listened to below.)
Last week Psychologist Dr Wayne Warburton was seen on Channel Ten claiming the link between video games and violent behavior is stronger than the link between smoking and lung cancer. According to the news report psychologists are claiming an “explosion in youth crime is inextricably linked to violent video games and other media.”
Earlier the same week the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) posted a media release on their website with the heading “Gaming industry mirrors ‘big tobacco’ in denial of violent gaming effects.” The ACL media release quotes a paper titled: Video game effects confirmed, suspected and speculative: A review of the evidence. One of the contributors to that paper is Craig Anderson who has often been criticised by his peers (notably Ferguson) for his methods.
Dr Christopher Ferguson has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Central Florida and is the co-author of: Much Ado About Nothing: The Misestimation and Overinterpretation of Violent Vido Game Effects in Eastern and Western Nations: Comment on Anderson et al. (2010)
The Channel Ten news report can be viewed here.
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It’s funny because I’ve recently heard (and am going to study to confirm) the exact opposite to this, I remember my brother and I watching shows like tmnt when we were kids, and going stupid afterwards, they didnt band teenage mutant ninja turtles because of that though? or power rangers or… *insert name of random violent cartoon here… DBZ anyone?????????* and in fact I think as we got older we realised just how stupid it was, and how unacceptable that kind of behaviour is. Have they heard of Bad Parenting?