It's Failure That Feeds Agression in Video Games

A startling new study has found that feelings of failure, not violence, fuel aggression in video games.

According to, research shows "hostile behavior is linked to gamers’ experiences of failure and frustration during play—not to a game’s violent content."

I've watched my son play Black Ops II and he throws the controller across the room only when he hasn't been able to "kill" enough other players, so it's true (and yes, I know I'm a bad mom that he even has this game), t his kid who's afraid of spiders.

The study is the first to look at the player’s psychological experience with video games instead of focusing solely on its content. Researchers found that failure to master a game and its controls led to frustration and aggression, regardless of whether the game was violent or not, the Web site reports.

“Any player who has thrown down a remote control after losing an electronic game can relate to the intense feelings or anger failure can cause,” newswise quotes explains lead author Andrew Przybylski, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University, who said such frustration is commonly known among gamers as “rage-quitting."

To tease out which aspects of the gaming experience lead to aggressive feelings, the researchers manipulated the interface, controls, and degree of difficulty in custom-designed video games across six lab experiments. Nearly 600 college-aged participants played the games—many of which included violent and nonviolent variations—and then were tested for aggressive thoughts, feelings, or behaviors, newswise notes.
So does this mean video games aren't harmful?  I wouldn't draw that conclusion.  I let my son play video games because, yes, I'll admit it, I can do other things while he's occupied.  
Do we really want our kids to learn not to be able to deal with frustration?  After all, it's a big part of life.  Hell, no. But is it a part of life for tweens and teens today?  Yes.  Of course they're going to have to work around it as they grow up.  But it's good to know that the violent content of these games isn't what drives most kids to violence.  As long as he's not begging for an assault rifle (and he's not), I figure I'm safe.


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