Cooper Lawrence is pretty ignorant, and I enjoyed watching the drama unfold as gamers took it on themselves to fix her ignorance. I started to wonder how other psychologists actually feel about this woman and what she has to say. I set out to get an opinion from a psychologist. Unfortunately, the only psychologists I know are professors at my university.
This is the e-mail I sent to a local professor. I've edited his name to keep anyone from spamming him like they did to Cooper (not that anyone would.)
----------------------------------
Dr. ****,
My name is Kel Cecil. You may remember me from your presentation about
violence in video games. I brought the game Manhunt 2 to your attention
and discussed Department of Justice statistics showing a decreasing
crime rate among youth in recent years.
Recently Fox News did an unfair segment about the video game "Mass
Effect" for the Xbox 360. Fox New's "experts" ranted about the sexual
content in the game. The truth is that the segment in question lasts
under a minute and is no more revealing than anything I see on prime
time TV. Cooper Lawrence also sites some statistics that go against
every statistic I've heard. The video game community is in a bit of an
uproar about what we feel in unfair and sensationalist reporting at the
worst.
I'm writing to ask two questions. My first question is just a reminder
for myself. The Department of Justice statistics about youth violence
and video games can be found at this site:
http://www.gamerevolution.com/features/violence_and_videogames
There is also a handy time line that shows the creation of popular game
consoles during this time. When I mentioned this data, I believe you
said that these statistics don't show anything conclusive. Why is that?
My second question is about the Fox News segment itself. Do you think
that a psychologists have the right to create and take part in stories
like this if they have not played the game? If you do think it's right,
then please explain why and how one can have a full understanding of the
game if you have not fully experienced it?
Here are some links, in case you have not seen the segment:
A brief overview with video of the actual segment:
http://www.destructoid.com/luke-skywalker-meets-debbie-does-dallas-fox-report-on-mass-effect-is-saddening-66295.phtml
A transcription of the segment: http://gamepolitics.com/2008/01/22/1993/
The game publisher's response to the segment:
http://www.destructoid.com/ea-calls-fox-out-on-its-bs-goes-to-bat-for-mass-effect-66439.phtml
Also, here are the Entertainment Software's Association's statistics
about the average age of gamers:
http://www.theesa.com/facts/gamer_data.php
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Kel Cecil
-------------------------
I finally received a response from him today:
-------------------------
Kel,
Thanks for your questions.
Regarding correlational data (like DOJ or FBI statistics), it's difficult to control for other factors that influenced an apparent decline in crime. For example, you may notice that the link you provided shows a decrease in violent crime that begins sometime after the Clinton admintration took office. In that administration, 10,000 new police officers were hired to reduce crime, the economy (and unemployment) declined rapidly, and many other factors co-occured at the time of release of certain violent games.
More importantly, the DOJ data do not account for big changes in US demographics (the percentages among the age groups vary widely over time, affecting crime stats).
Regarding your second question:
As to the news show, no, I do not watch Fox news.
I note that the "expert" on the Fox news clip you linked was not in fact listed as a professor, scientist, or psychologist, but a "psychology specialist". I've never heard of that profession before. It's also worth noting that most research has studied violence in video games, not sex. Sex is so rare in U.S.-released video games that it's not a big issue. I don't know what data the Fox "expert" was referring to.
I do think she can offer an opinion about the effects of a game she hasn't played, in the same way a physician can offer an opinion about the effects of cocaine without personally using cocaine herself.
If you want to do further research on the effects of violent video games, I cannot recommend you consult game industry or similar websites. The best impartial, scientific work is this new volume on the subject.
http://www.amazon.com/Violent-Video-Effects-Children-Adolescents/dp/0195309839/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201639491&sr=1-1
Regards,
The Professor
---------------------------------
I can understand what he's saying about the DOJ data, but I don't think Cooper claiming that Mass Effect is full of sex is like a physician talking about the effects of cocaine at all. I'm having a very hard time understanding how the two are alike.
This professor also notes that Fox refers to her as a psychology specialist. He comments on that, but I think her education is listed on her website. As I recall, the best she has is a Masters and is perusing her Doctorate.
How do you guys feel about this? I'm pretty sure no one will agree with the analogy, but how about the Department of Justice statistics?
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Well to augment the analogy is a physician talking about the effect of cocaine, if the extent of their knowledge of cocaine specifically is "OOOO COCAINE IS BAD FOR YOU, THAT'S WHAT I HEARD". To extend the analogy the doc is drawing:
drugs are to cocaine
as
video games are to Mass Effect
I especially enjoyed how he equated video game playing to cocaine usage.
Stats etc don't matter in this case, since you could use those stats for just about anything you want. We'll always have bad scientists on the games debate, the media just tends to select those more often than the few good ones :(
"I do think she can offer an opinion about the effects of a game she hasn't played"
Come on, we're gamers on the internet, it's not that uncommon for us to have an opinion on a console or game we don't own or play.
The problem with Cooper probably was that someone lied or misinformed her, she had a mental idea of what Mass Effect was according to what she was told and she gave an opinion based on that.
Anyway, she's still an idiot for not checking her sources.
You can always offer an opinion about things you haven't personally experienced. But that opinion may well be wrong if it's based on poor sources and/or an error-prone bias. So it's best to have good sources and minimize your cognitive bias.
In the case of FOX News, Cooper Lawrence had a strong bias and unreliable sources. This is the type of decision-making environment that would, I don't know, get a President into trouble.
As to your Professor, ask him/her to analyze his/her analogy for classical logical fallacies. I only found two, but maybe your professor's a better logician than I. Ask if the doctor's opinion on the effects of cocaine is in some way different from a reader's opinion on the contents of a book he's never heard of before.
Of course it is. The doctor is deriving the basis for her opinion from observed and documented behaviors. The reader is deriving his opinion of the book by creating knowledge solely from within himself. Ask your psychology professor if he/she would prefer visiting a physician who employs an empirical basis for medical treatment, or one who uses intuition.
Not to be too hard on your professor, he/she almost got it right. I wouldn't object if the sentence read:
I do think she can offer an opinion about the effects of a game she hasn't played, provided she is objectively correct about the content of the game, in the same way a physician can offer an opinion about the effects of cocaine without personally using cocaine herself.
If it is the game's content that harms young minds, then ignorance of the content is akin to a doctor who has never read about the effects of cocaine, but does know about LSD. One can't assume that all games/controlled substances have similar effects, regardless of content.