Study on Possible Links Between Gun Violence and Factors
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of Health and Human Services in the U.S., stated at a press conference that the National Institutes of Health will begin studies to look for possible connections between gun violence and factors such as overprescription of medication to children, social media, and video games.
Complex Relationship Between Video Games and Aggressive Behavior
Scientifically, analyses and technical reports show that the relationship between video games and aggressive behavior is complex: laboratory studies sometimes show short-term increases in aggressive behavior, but there is no consistent evidence that playing video games causes violent crimes or massacres in real life. This distinction between “experimental aggression” and “real violence” has been highlighted by academic institutions and analyses.
Call for Further Research
The political response includes more research: in 2020, there was an increase in federal funding for studies on gun violence, and this new announcement is part of an effort to obtain more robust evidence before drawing conclusions. For researchers, this means designing studies that control for multiple factors (access to weapons, family context, mental health, medication use, etc.) if they want to arrive at reliable results.
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