No, Video Games Are Not a Factor in Mass Shootings
Rather than acknowledge the political motivations of the El Paso shooter or the line of radicalization that led him toward reactionary white supremacy, a number of politicians are returning to a popular scapegoat: video games. Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and President Donald Trump all cited violent video games as a factor in these shootings and other acts of violence in the US.
These complaints are a decades-old distraction and continue to be unsubstantiated. There is no significant evidence that video games are a contributing factor to mass shootings.
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A 2017 study from Frontiers in Psychology found no evidence that violent video games, even when played to excess, desensitize players to actual violence. Another paper published in Perspectives on Psychological Science this year found that violent video games increase aggressiveness, but only to a very small extent.
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