Friday 5 March 2010

Video Games to Violence > Tobacco to Cancer?

I need your help. I can't get my head around this one. Sprout, over at thataussiegamesite.com posted an article where a group - that receives funding from Michael Atkinson - states:

“It’s much greater than the effect of smoking on lung cancer"



Just a quick Google. Smoking-related diseases killed 14900 Australians in 2004–05 - just a first glance stat that came up. You'd assume that number would be larger now. So video game violence affect on society - is their basic argument past the mental image of the word CANCER - is greater than 15, 000 to 20,000 deaths per year from smoking related diseases. Let alone the impact that has on the health system and families.

So using their suggestive logic you'd reasonably assume there's THOUSANDS, if not more going by the smoking stats, of incidents of violence related DIRECTLY to video games...yes?

I'd be curious to know if this "Psychologist" Dr Wayne Warburton - whose quote that is - eats weeties and if they were giving away doctorates at some stage in the packet.

From the World Health Organisation.

"Tobacco is no doubt the single most cause of death in the world. Tobacco kills more then 5 million people which is much much more then HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, malaria combined. By 2030 tobacco is going to kill 8 million people a year."

But WAIT, that can't be right World Health Organisation, "Dr" Warburton said video games to violence is greater than smoking to cancer so your stats must be wrong, or you must be confusing YOUR stats of 5 million deaths a year from smoking related diseases to that of affects of video game related violence to society. Coz surely, we would have heard of this violence A LOT more than smoking stats and SURELY there's actual studies to be found on the topic?......surely?.

6 comments:

  1. I just did a Google Scholar search for his name. It seems he comes up in studies on aggression.
    http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Dr+Wayne+Warburton&btnG=Search

    Now I haven't read any of the results.

    I read that article and that lot sound very extreme.

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  2. Psych research is full of these agenda pushing arseholes. This is such fucking fraud it makes me embarrassed to have shared a vocation with these clowns.

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  3. Whoa, Bananas in Pyjamas is on their dangerous hit list too!
    ROTFLMAO...

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  4. Dr Yobbo: that's why I usually don't listen to statistics.

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  5. It's a joke. Some fucker will believe this shit though.

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  6. Just sounds like a way of gaining attention to me. He was probably neglected by his father as a child, and is trying to compensate.

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