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Comment by d5tryr | Hacker News Reader

Probably best to throw any science under the bus if it's going to get in the way of normal grown ups simulating mass murder.

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This is exactly the kind of emotionally-charged comment that is not conducive to a rational discussion.

Let's not "throw science under the bus" at all. In fact, there have been studies[1] which show violent crime decreases as access to violent video games increase.

[1]: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8798927/Vi...

relevant > http://www.military-sf.com/Killing.htm

Not all studies are created equal. The study in the article you link to shows that violence decreases in the short term when a violent block buster is released, because violent individuals are busy playing. The article also criticizes lab studies that show an immediate effect as synthetic, not reflecting reality.

The study linked above looks at mid/long term effects on a large-ish cohort in a real world setting.

Studies[1] have also shown that competitiveness of the game is a better predictor of aggression, rather than violence. This study does nothing to control for that, as far as I can see. Its certainly a fact that most violent games are also quite competitive.

> The study in the article you link to shows that violence decreases in the short term when a violent block buster is released, because violent individuals are busy playing.

That's right, but I fail to see how that's a flaw in the study?

[1]: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/201...

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