On Aug. 3, 2019, only hours after a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, which left 23 people dead, a familiar talking point reared its head: video games were to blame.
The question of whether video games incite real-world violence among kids and teens has been sparking controversy — and headlines — for decades. But despite more than 20 years of investigation, researchers have failed to prove a causal link between playing violent video games and committing acts of violence. What's more, a longitudinal study into the connection between video game violence and human aggression found that any impact was “too small to be practically meaningful,” according to a meta-analysis published in Royal Society Open Science in 2020.
So why has this myth persisted? First, we need to look at the contentious battleground surrounding the supposed link between video games and aggressive behavior.
Video games have gotten a bad rap ...
