New studies find no evidence linking videogames and violent behaviour

New UK research involving more than 3,000 people has found no evidence to support the theory that videogames make players more violent.

The University of York research aimed to analyse whether exposing players to concepts such as violence through a game made those ideas more accessible in real life, a principle known as priming.

In one experiment, participants were asked to play car or animal-themed games, before being asked to identify a selection of images as vehicles or animals. Participants who played a car-themed game were no quicker at categorising vehicle images, with reaction times actually shown to be significantly slower in many cases.

For a second study looking at whether realism influenced the aggression of game players, it was shown that playing games with more realistic depictions of violence did not lead to more violent word associations in a subsequent word puzzle challenge.

Dr David Zendle, from the University of York's department of computer science, said: "The findings suggest that there is no link between these kinds of realism in games and the kind of effects that video games are commonly thought to have on their players."

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