This week, Liz and Kim look at a paper from University College London about the relationship between personality traits, preference for violent video games and outcomes like verbal aggression and hostility. We also hear a review of a recent remake of Lassie Come Home, and Liz interviews Jen Hoey about her work on children’s online safety, and why she named her organisation ‘Not My Kid’.
Show notes
UK paper: Szymon Zbigniew Olejarnik and Daniela Romano, ‘Is playing violent video games a risk factor for aggressive behaviour? Adding narcissism, self-esteem and PEGI ratings to the debate (2023) 14 Frontiers In Psychology; Published: JUL 5 2023
A helpful description of what a ‘mediator’ is, in social science literature: ‘a third variable that explains how or why … 2 [or more] other variables relate in a … causal pathway.’ See Amanda Fairchild and Heather McDaniel, ‘Best (But oft-forgotten) practices: mediation analysis’ (2017) 105 (6) American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1259-1271 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5445681/). So in Kim’s example, if you provide pizza and productivity goes up, the pizza doesn’t have that effect directly, it’s ‘mediated’ by morale. Pizza is the first variable and productivity is the second; morale is the third. In this week’s paper, violent video game choice was one variable and different kinds of aggression and hostility were another. Mediating these were the personality traits of narcissism and low self-esteem.
Lassie Come Home review: https://childrenandmedia.org.au/movie-reviews/movies/lassie-come-home-2020
Lassie Come Home availability in Australia: https://www.flicks.com.au/movie/lassie-come-home-2020/
Jen Hoey and Not My Kid: https://www.notmykid.com.au/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/outsidethescreenpod/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outsidethescreenpod/
Children and Media Australia (CMA): www.childrenandmedia.org.au; www.facebook.com/australiancouncilonchildrenandthemedia
Kim’s clinic: www.cgiclinic.com
Share this post