Correlation Does not Mean Causation: A Look at Video Games and Aggression

Now that my time at UTD and the EMAC program are coming to a close, I can (somewhat) sum up all that I've learned into three simple phrases: know when you're done, take nothing at face value, and correlation does not mean causation.

While reading the article about video games and aggression, the last phrase that I mentioned popped into my head immediately. In EMAC we are obligated to take just as many (if not more) theory classes as well as production classes, and this phrase has been used in every theory class that I have been to in the past three years. This is because our professors want us to realize that when it comes to predicting behavior multiple factors, not just one, are responsible for influencing human thought and action. Therefore, it is almost impossible to say that video games alone are the cause for aggressive behavior.

Behavior can be influenced by culture, by means of persuasion, by the individual's need to be correct or to be liked, etc.. In the case of Adam Lanza, for example, while he may have been a habitual player of Call of Duty, he may have had other influencing factors in his life that lead to him murdering those 26 people. To place the blame on video games alone is to ignore other environmental factors or societal pressures that can also lead to aggressive outbursts. 

Now I'm not saying that video games don't have an affect on the human mind (especially if they're young and still developing). Kids and teens who are frequently subjected to violent games and TV shows do tend to be more desensitized to "real-world" violence than those who are not. Therefore, it is correct to say that these video games do play a role in the increase of aggressive behavior. However, to say that it alone is the cause of violent outbursts by teens and young adults is ignorant and doesn't address the whole issue entirely. 

So how does the phrase "correlation does not mean causation" come into play? These researchers had a small number of students play a violent video game for a few minutes and then study their behavior in terms of aggression. While these studies show how the video game lead to an increase in aggression in that moment, it did not prove that video games cause a permanent state of heightened aggression. This study is also known as a correlation study; it only proves what caused that behavior in that moment. In order to really study aggression, more factors will have to be looked at and researched so that we may have a better understanding in the future.