Blaming video games for real life tragedies is racist, suggests psychologist
Every year, we're never short of media outlets and commentators keen to link violent tragedies and gaming.
Just this week, they've had more cause than usual - with Oslo mass-murderer Anders Behring Breivik himself calling Modern Warfare 2 a "training simulator" for his distressing actions.
But, according clinical psychologist Christopher Ferguson - an expert on video game violence and mass killings at Texas A&M International University - those who seek to make this connection aren't just wrong. They might well be racist.
Struggling to see exactly how Mr. Ferguson got there? Allow him to explain: "I know it's a little controversial to say but there's a certain type of racism in place with these killings... When shootings happen in an inner city in minority-populated schools, video games are never brought up.
"But when these things happen in white majority schools and in the suburbs, people start to freak out and video games are inevitably blamed. I think that there's a certain element of racism or ignorance here."
In a nutshell, then: when non-caucasians shoot people, games are rarely blamed. But when caucasians kill people, games are sought as an excuse. He's right: it's certainly... controversial.
"People really want to know what kind of boogeyman can we hang this on and video games are still the top choice when it comes to any type of tragedy," he added, speaking to Forbes.
Okay, that last one we can definitely get behind.
Ferguson rightly noted that that the video game connection to the Oslo killings - in which Breivik killed 76 people, the majority teenagers - hadn't inflamed as much media outcry as previous massacres have.
One factor could be because the tragedy occurred far from U.S. soil and no Americans were involved, he said - but another could be that games are now more ingrained (and accepted) in our culture than ever before.
"There are groups out there who are going to blame video games on everything," said Ferguson. "They're like ambulance chasers, really. I think it's irresponsible and thoughtless to try to make political gain off of someone else's tragedy, but they're going to do it. That's what they do. But even those groups have been much quieter with the Oslo tragedy."
He added: "Scientifically, the idea that video game violence, movie, or television violence contributes to mass homicides is pretty much a debunked idea that has no real basis to it. I think certainly the Supreme Court case helped, especially since they were so clear in pointing out that current research was not able to support that line of reasoning....
"Linking the playing of violent video games to a mass homicide when the perpetrator is a young male is like blaming the killing on the fact that he was wearing sneakers. The base rate of that behavior is so common that it has no predictive value whatsoever."
All astute observations that sit nicely with CVG's very own WRONG campaign.
But then there's Ferguson's headline suggestion. Foolish, yes, but racist?
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...-psychologist/
