Doom Didn't Make Me Do It

Abstract

![Figure][1] SOURCES: THE NPD GROUP INC./RETAIL TRACKING SERVICE; CHILDSTATS.GOV Oceans of studies—laboratory, longitudinal, and brain-imaging—haven't settled the question of whether violent TV programs and video games cause people to be violent. Now Christopher Ferguson, a psychologist at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, has weighed in with a graph showing that as video game sales have soared, youth violence has declined. Ferguson contends that lab-based experiments on “aggression” bear little relationship to actual violence. Psychologist L. Rowell Huesmann of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, says the graph is a “red herring” and that early viewing of violence has repeatedly been shown to influence later behavior. [1]: pending:yes