what I ' m trying to convey instead of just picking out a few keywords and assuming I ' m just repeating some prestablished argument they don ' t like and then refusing to accept correction I think it is often too easy for people to forget they are talking to real people , rather than a complex person who probably has very understandable views and concerns . Video gameviolence research is actually pretty robust , as you said . It also largely points out that there is little to no link though . I agree with this . My reading of the literature is that studies tend to show slight correlations between things that are correlated with violence , like low empathy and aggression . But I wouldn ' t draw a causal link between actual violence and video games . And as you say for competitiveness , the behaviour goes back to normal shortly after . I think the behaviour going back to normal shortly after is not however evidence that there are no long term effects . I am not saying there are long term effects , and I don ' t think its something to be concerned about , but I think it would be interesting . I see it in a similair way to using drugs ones and using drugs at extreme levels . Bad example , because of the negative connotations of drugs , but I hope you can see the analogy I am trying to make ? The experiments they are running won ' t figure out the effect of video games , it will only indicate trends and possible correlations . This can open up direction for more specific testing in many fields , but with social science and psychology especially , there are simply too many variables to control , you cannot determine with certainty a causal relationship . You can generally only create indicative models , but not necessarily predictive ones . I think that ' s the key difference of the soft sciences that most people don ' t get including researchers in it all too often . I think this is such an important point . Thank you for bringing it up . I very strongly agree with you , and I think when it comes to correlations and predictions even a lot of scientists get it wrong . I personally am very skeptical of any substantial new claim that has not been independently verified . I am sure you have similar reservations . You seem to have quite a deep knowledge on all this , are you by any chance working in science or engineering ? I think the one thing I would say , is that while these criticisms are more applicable in social sciences , they certainly apply in Biology . The Placebo effect is pretty much a psychological phenomena and I think we can very easily test causality here . You give two groups sugar pills and one group is told they are getting anti vomit medication . You test who vomits more . What do you think ? I think the vast majority of psychology questions are way more complex of course . And we need to be very critical before saying anything is causal . I fully expect if a child was raised in isolation with no human contact and only GTA to inform it of how humans behave then when you let it out it would probably go looking for quest markers and wonder where the GPS route markers were to tell it where to go . We KNOW these things , and thus any decision to the contrary is made with fully knowledge they are making the WRONG decision . The games don ' t make people do these things , the people CHOOSE to do them regardless . I think we are pretty much on the same page on most things . I pretty much agree with you . There is one area that I for my perspective is quite important and I can ' t quite tell your opinion on it . I think you are a very rational person who obviously tries to look for evidence when making a decision . I would like to think I do the same . But I feel personally that I can be influenced quite easily . I can think of many times in the past I uncritically absorbed parts of what people around me were saying . I always try to correct misconceptions of course , but have you never found yourself realizing that something you thought you knew was incorrect ? While I strongly agree with what you are saying , I can ' t live up to this standard of checking all the information I get , and critically examining it . I think that is why advertisement works on a lot of people . I am also thinking of the effect of movies . The Movie Sideways reportedly increased sales of Pinot Noir by 16 % because of a memorable speech . Frankly because of this move I now know that Pinot Noir is a wine . If I go to a restaurant I might order it simply because its the only wine I recognise . So my wine buying behaviour is pretty unimportant , but I am not 100 % sure about this Jaws reportedly changed attitudes towards sharks . It was not something people thought about that much , but now it was terror inducing . I think everyone knows that Jaws is fiction , but it can still shape our view . Reports of UFO sightings spike after major movies like ET . I mean I also believed all sorts of things simply because of my upbringing . I had the tools available to change my view , but I didn ' t because I had no reason to think they were wrong . I was quite certain weed and LSD are dangerous deadly drugs , based on my upbringing and I would argue how it was portrayed in the media . I think this is the main context I come from , and I wonder what your thoughts are on this ? I feel the strongest influence comes from my parents , teachers , and people around me growing up . But I have no control over them , and I am sure there are still attitudes and believes buried inside me that If I had the time to really look at them I would not hold anymore .