In the wake of the El Paso shooting on Aug. 3 that left 22 dead and dozens injured, a familiar trope has reemerged: Often, when a young man is the shooter, people try to blame the tragedy on violent video games and other forms of media.
A new study published this week in Nature journal Molecular Psychology provides a well-timed rebuttal to the weary trope – occasionally alluded to by President Trump and others in the wake of mass shootings – that violent video games are causing real-life mayhem.
After this thing the other week, here’s some actual science proving actual things. Specifically: “‘immoral’ virtual behaviours in a video game can lead to increased moral sensitivity”.