Culture

Study of 11,000 Children Shows No Correlation Between Video Games and Bad Behavior

Or television, either

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Any time a high-profile act of violence happens, some media pundits are quick to blame video games for influencing the perpetrators' actions. But results of a UK study says that such a link may not exist.

Recent research from the University of Glasgow —aiming to chart just how consumption of video games and television changes the behaviors of young children—has found that a steady diet of video games doesn't result in significantly altered behavior. The University of Glasgow paper pulled data from Great Britain's massive, ten-year Millennium Cohort Study and looked at how "conduct problems, emotional symptoms, peer relationship problems, hyperactivity/inattention and prosocial behaviour" were changed with regard to how much television or video games a child engaged with.