Survey: 54% of US believes games cause violence

A new phone survey apparently indicates the majority of Americans believe that violent video games result in a more violent society.

The study, conducted by Pulse Opinion Research on behalf of Rasmussen Reports showed that 54 per cent of respondents answered 'yes' to the question of 'do violent video games lead to more violence in our society?'

32 per cent believed that there was no direct correlation, with the remaining 14 per cent uncertain.

The number of positive respondents is completely unchanged since the company last ran the survey in April, but the percentage of Americans who see no connection is up from 27 per cent. Elsewhere in the survey, 69 per cent of Americans answered that they were either very or somewhat concerned about violence in video games, with 29 per cent 'not concerned' and 13 per cent 'not at all concerned'. It's unknown what accounts for the extra 11 per cent.

Perhaps somewhat predictably, on average, older respondents exhibited higher levels of concern than younger, but people without children were also more concerned than those who lived with their children.

65 per cent of respondents believe that states should have the power to prevent games of a violent nature being retailed to minors, but only 5 per cent believe that marshalling children's exposure to inappropriate material is the responsibility of the government - with an overwhelming 71 per cent felt it was the job of parents. A further 21 per cent attributed responsibility to game developers.

The study was conducted by automated phone calls to 1000 individuals. Answers were weighted in order to address imbalances in the methodology which resulted in more answers given by older people, females and those in rural areas.

Full results can be found on the Rasmussen website.