Violent video games not linked to being less helpful

A recent study has found no link between violent video games and less helpful behaviour.

The study, published in Plos One, used four contemporary games (Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty Black Ops, World of Zoo and Portal 2) and two classic titles (Lemmings and Lamers) to study whether violence and anti-social behaviour go up with more violent and anti-social games.

"A recent meta-analysis conducted by Anderson and his colleagues suggested that violent video games increase anti-social behaviour. However, the value of that meta-analysis is debated, reflecting a wider debate in the literature," the researchers wrote.

The researchers reasoned that if violent and anti-social games could be linked to anti-social behaviour, they could be linked to lower rates of pro-social behaviour.

After running three experiments to test this hypothesis however, the researchers found no such link.

"Across all three experiments we could not find a decrease in prosocial behaviour," the researchers wrote.

"While this study is not definitive evidence that violent video games have no detrimental effect on prosocial behaviour, it might be that previously raised concerns regarding the impact of violent games on prosocial behaviour may be mismatched or disproportionate," the researchers wrote.