Abstract
The issue of violent video game influences on youth violence and aggression remains intensely debatedin the scholarly literature and among the general public. Several recent meta-analyses, examiningoutcome measures most closely related to serious aggressive acts, found little evidence for a relationshipbetween violent video games and aggression or violence. In a new meta-analysis, C. A. Anderson et al.(2010) questioned these findings. However, their analysis has several methodological issues that limit theinterpretability of their results. In their analysis, C. A. Anderson et al. included many studies that do notrelate well to serious aggression, an apparently biased sample of unpublished studies, and a “bestpractices” analysis that appears unreliable and does not consider the impact of unstandardized aggressionmeasures on the inflation of effect size estimates. They also focused on bivariate correlations rather thanbetter controlled estimates of effects. Despite a number of methodological flaws that all appear likely toinflate effect size estimates, the final estimate of r.15 is still indicative of only weak effects. Contrasts between the claims of C. A. Anderson et al. (2010) and real-world data on youth violence are discussed.
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