Games and violence

Recent calls for a Senate investigation into the alleged influence of a violent mobile game on a shooting incident have renewed public debate on the relationship between digital games and violence. But what does the literature show about the link between gaming and aggressive or violent behavior? To examine this question, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of Scopus-indexed studies using a structured Boolean search of gaming-related and violence-related terms, while excluding studies focused on therapy, treatment, intervention, rehabilitation, and economic or business contexts. Across the evidence, the findings seem inconclusive. In studies involving action and combat games, 68.16 percent find no evidence of a link between gaming and aggression, compared to 18.51 percent reporting a direct association and 13.33 percent attributing effects to other factors (e.g., age, pre-existing mental health conditions, exposure to family conflict or instability, peer bullying or social rejection, and broader socioeconomic stress). Similar patterns are observed in general screen-time and mixed forms (16.33 percent direct link; 69.31 percent no evidence) and social and cooperative gameplay (14.23 percent; 70.57 percent). Comparable distributions are found in immersive and virtual reality contexts (10.61 percent; 73.47 percent) and simulation, strategy, and sandbox contexts (12.65 percent; 80.41 percent). Across game types, most studies find no meaningful relationship between gaming and aggression. Where associations or links do appear, they seem to be due to underlying personal or social conditions than the games themselves. In the wake of high-profile incidents, violent games are sometimes invoked as an explanation despite the lack of consistent evidence for causation. Legislators should therefore take caution and avoid turning such claims into policy conclusions that go beyond what extant research supports.