Football games make you more violent than shoot em' ups

The football boot is mightier than the railgun.

FIRST IT WAS shoot em' up video games that were said to be causing us to get violent in real life, but now football games are even worse, according to researchers at Huddersfield University.

Psychologists at the University have conducted research that apparently shows that playing football games evokes a greater emotional response than playing video game shoot em' ups.

The research is being presented today at the British Psychological Society's Annual Conference in Glasgow. Forty participants both male and female were randomly allocated to play either a violent Xbox360 video game or an Xbox360 football game.
The applicant's heart rate, respiration and brain activity were measured before, during and after the games.

Though there are no numbers on offer, the results show that apparently "killing someone caused little brain activity but conceding a goal or a foul caused high levels of activity".

So we are led to believe that brain activity is directly linked to violence and that allegations against shoot em' ups in the past were misplaced. Dr Goodson of Huddersfield University said, "As participants reacted with more agitation during the football game it seems that the effects of violent video games have been misrepresented in the past."

Goodson also said, "There is much concern over the effects of violent video games and how these contribute to general aggression. However, this research indicates that 'killing' someone is not as 'real' as playing a sport and the brain recognises this and doesn't react in the same way."
We think that no matter how 'real' a game is or what emotions it manages to elicit, we still have the ability to control our reactions and our actions when it comes to real life situations. We also tend to think that reading studies like these makes us feel more violent.