The latest research shows that video games are blamed for mass shootings overwhelmingly when the perpetrator is white.
On Sept. 16, the journal Psychology of Popular Media Culture published the results of two studies about the perception that video games cause mass shootings. The report states that both mass media and the general public more often consider violent video games to be a potential cause of a mass shooting when the person suspected of the crime is white.
The first study involved an experiment in which researchers showed participants a mockup of a news story about a school shooting, which included a photo of the suspect.
The fake article mentioned that the suspect played violent games but did not contain any language linking the hobby to the crime. There were two versions of the article with identical text.
Half of the participants saw articles that had a photo of a white suspect. The others saw the same piece with an image of a black suspect.
In response to a questionnaire, people shown articles with the photo of a white perpetrator were more likely to blame the violent games.
The second study in the journal was a review of 204,796 news stories about 204 mass shootings that occurred in the US. The study found that news outlets mentioned video games as a potential cause 8.35 times more often when the perpetrator was white than when the shooter was black.
These results point to biases and assumptions that people of color are more violent than white people.
“When a violent act is carried out by someone who doesn’t match the racial stereotype of what a violent person looks like, people tend to seek an external explanation for the violent behavior,” lead researcher Patrick Markey, PhD, said in a press release from the American Psychological Association.
“When a white child from the suburbs commits a horrific violent act like a school shooting, then people are more likely to erroneously blame video games than if the child was African American.”
Blaming violent video games for school shootings by white perpetrators could be a sign of a more significant racial issue, according to Markey. As a result, African American perpetrators may receive greater personal blame for their crimes, which in turn could lead to unfair treatment in the justice system.
Source: American Psychological Association