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NEWS: Study: Competition, Not Necessarily Violent Games, Is Linked to Aggression




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razisgosu



Joined: 26 Sep 2012
Posts: 657
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 12:33 am Reply with quote
This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. ANYTHING competitive leads to aggressiveness, not just video games. Take a look at sports as an example. Of course it's frustrating to lose a match that leads to a loss in rating or your own personal prestige, that's the whole point of competitive anything, the better you do, the better it shows on your profile/record/etc. You can't censor that because it's just how the human mind works.
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GiriOni



Joined: 10 Aug 2012
Posts: 218
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 12:42 am Reply with quote
I'll give you credit for not reading the article correctly enough to realize that it wasn't linking just video games to competition.

Quote: "links competitive activities and aggressive behavior" and "as well as competitive gambling and aggression."

Using Video Games as a medium to research hardly means anything.
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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 1:42 am Reply with quote
razisgosu wrote:
This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. ANYTHING competitive leads to aggressiveness, not just video games.


You do realize that this is pretty much what the study is saying right? Competition increases aggression but video games themselves do not.
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configspace



Joined: 16 Aug 2008
Posts: 3717
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 2:30 am Reply with quote
So the solution is to ban competition, right?
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TitanXL



Joined: 08 Jun 2010
Posts: 4036
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 2:34 am Reply with quote
I wish I could be hired to do studies for things that are common sense.
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Cutiebunny



Joined: 18 Apr 2010
Posts: 1768
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 3:44 am Reply with quote
So now we have justification for giving out participation medals to everyone for doing anything?

Spectacular.
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TsunaReborn!



Joined: 08 Sep 2012
Posts: 4713
Location: Cheltenham UK
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 6:51 am Reply with quote
Cutiebunny wrote:
So now we have justification for giving out participation medals to everyone for doing anything?

Spectacular.


I'm up for this!
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LavenderMintRose



Joined: 30 Nov 2012
Posts: 168
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 7:27 am Reply with quote
It wouldn't require "banning" competition, or giving out medals to everyone.

I think someone will probably develop ways to get out of that mindset before leaving its context... like, breathing exercises for a sports team to do after a game before leaving the stadium. Hard to get people to do that in a more individual context (like playing a video game or gambling or whatever, really). Also, aggression tends to want to maintain itself. A person in that situation is more likely to want to punch the person trying to get them to relax than to want to relax.

This really does make sense, though. I wonder if it's strongly connected to the cheating scandals in difficult (and therefore, competitive) schools?
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Mr. sickVisionz



Joined: 28 Oct 2007
Posts: 2175
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 12:29 pm Reply with quote
I feel bad for society that it's taken a few thousand years for scientists to discover a link between competition and aggression. I think the only time it doesn't happen is when the person competing was forced to and truly doesn't give a shit about their performance.
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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 3:18 pm Reply with quote
TitanXL wrote:
I wish I could be hired to do studies for things that are common sense.


Some might argue that it's "common sense" that being exposed to violent media will desensitize you to violence. I don't think that's true but it's not really that much worse of an argument than the one you're putting forth here. It's very easy to twist "common sense" to support whatever you believe. Which is why we study things. So we can base our views on fact and not empty assumption.
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RestLessone



Joined: 02 Aug 2009
Posts: 1426
Location: New York
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 3:44 pm Reply with quote
Studies like these aren't saying a link has been discovered, as if it had never been thought of, but that there is some quantitative proof that competition may be linked aggression. You'll see plenty of studies focusing on similar or the same links, too, as it builds a body of proof.

Good science is not based around 'common sense' ideologies and follows the basic scientific method. Remember, much of what we consider common sense may not have been in times past. Even today, our 'common sense' isn't always correct. For instance, look at the giraffe. We would obviously believe it to have evolved so it could eat vegetation high off the ground. However, new studies are pointing to the neck being sexually selected: females like them, and males use them as weapons during 'necking'. The eating benefits are possibly just a side-effect of the driving role. Now, giraffes and human aggression are very different topics, but the common theme of not-what-it-seems remains.

As ikillchicken mentioned, one could also frame an argument around exposing children to violent media will cause them to act it out. Studies have helped strengthen the argument that this is not the case. And throwing scientific evidence into the equation is much better than having two sides duke it out based on morals, personal values, and anecdotes.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14889
PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 5:39 pm Reply with quote
Studies like this are done to try to support or contradict previous assertions, in this instance, with relation to video games. Yes, competition usually leads to aggression, but this time with video games factored in, when the previous assertions were that violence (video games) beget violence. Some could be competitive but not violent, while some could be violent but not competitive.
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