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Comment by hmayer | Hacker News Reader

I have a question: does seeing violence around you make you more violent?

For example, societies which experienced a lot of war are not more violent societies. Actually, my experience is that seeing violence makes you less violent. Is that possible?

My second comment is about violent games...

Video games of any type are not good for kids. Not because of violence, sex and other things. It is because they don't go out to socialize. My theory is that instead of limiting "what to watch / play", parents should more focus on limiting "how much to watch / play".

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Seeing violence should indeed make you less violent unless you're a psychopath or trained to commit violence like modern soldiers are.

This is a fun doco about most WW1-WW2 soldiers being unable to kill in combat, only 2% shot to kill, being psychopaths, and 10-20% shot in the direction of the enemy.

http://youtu.be/2vlGR7S2wcI

Modern training makes 95% of soldiers killers. The training consists of simulating combat as realistically as possible and turning it into a routine. Amount matters there. Can realistic videogames give people some level of calm in a combat situation, which would allow them to kill better? Perhaps the military has some studies.

Is it related to being the aggressor in shooting rampages and gang violence? Perhaps weakly.

"Video games of any type are not good for kids. Not because of violence, sex and other things. It is because they don't go out to socialize. My theory is that instead of limiting "what to watch / play", parents should more focus on limiting "how much to watch / play"."

I have to disagree here. Many video games are very social and a great way to bring people together. I remember when I was little N64 sleepover parties were all the rage and something to look forward to. Video games are great for kids but parents have to be there and assessing things as they go--it's not a cut and dry thing, there's a ton of different video games and every kids different. At the end of the day it's about ensuring these are good kids that will become good adults.

Let me put something else up. I'm smirking while I post this and have no bad intentions. I think it's ~somewhat~ on topic here:

During the World Championship in Germany (football/soccer. Pick your favorite) there was an article circulating in German newspapers about leaflets handed out to visitors from the US, supposedly from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The extracts and quotes said about media (among other things) that US citizen visiting DE should be prepared to understand that

- Nudity is far less a problem here. You might see nipples! And - even during daytime (serious stuff is limited to broadcasts after 22:00).

- Violence and gore are less common and sometimes inappropriate (again, there's more freedom after 22:00, but still).

So - there was a nice discussion about this trade between sex and violence. What's worse? :)

Does seeing violence around you make you more or less violent -- I can see it going either way, and to be honest, I'm not aware of any research that attempts to answer the question. I guess I can do some digging.

I agree that video games MAY not be good for kids because they may socialize less as a result. However, video games can have positive benefits. Steven Johnson argues that the complexity of modern video games induces a beneficial cognitive workout that's worth paying attention to. Check out his book: http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Bad-Good-You-Actually/dp/15...

> does seeing violence around you make you more violent?

My guess is that amount of violence per se is not the issue. It probably is more closely related to the consequences of said violence: someone living in a war zone has a much greater appreciation for the negative outcomes of violence versus someone who has experienced purely the excitement element of violence.

That said, definitely agree that it's less "what" and more "how much".

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