This Is Your Brain on Violence

A lot of the mature-rated games have significant violence in them, but even the teen-rated games do. The game we used in this study was a teen-rated game, called “Medal of Honor: Frontline.” Not a mature-rated game. They’re rated E for everyone, T for teen, MA for mature. Even a lot of the teen-rated games, which are available to people under 18, have a fair amount of violence in them.

Would a different rating system work? The “Mature” videogame rating is more related to sex than violence, right?

It’s sex, drugs, language. Usually, they have a rating, and they’ll say, “some violence, some blood, some language.” They don’t go into much detail about what it really involves.

What was the name of the non-violent videogame used in your study? Did you pick the games because they were the best-sellers?

It was [a car-chase video] called “Need for Speed Underground.” We tried to get a list of games that were popular, that were some of the better sellers. Then we went out and looked at those. My collaborator, William Kronenberger, who’s a child psychologist, and I looked at the content of the violence that was there.

Do you think violent TV shows and movies would have the same effect— or is there something unique about the interactive feature of videogames?