What is the influence of (violent) computer games on (budding) psychopaths?

Meh.. maybe a little extra excitement but, psychopaths have been enjoying drowning kittens and all manner of evil, cruel and psycho antics far before the advent of video games. Fantasy is always a precursor to acting out but it’s the acting out that solidifies the fantasy. It’s possible than when they cross the line from fantasy to acting out that a certain violent game theme could come into play. Gah..shiver…I’m done. lol

Most evidence suggests that violent video games do not correlate with psychopathic behavior and whatnot.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard so what you are saying is they would not be drawn to computer games at all?

Mind you, I am not trying to pin the blame for violence on video games – like so many people try to instantly do – just wondering if they can influence their behaviour significantly, either by helping young psychopaths refine their emerging fantasies i.e. make them worse, or perhaps act as a substitute to acting on them thus lowering their violence levels IRL etc.

Psychopaths have trouble with themselves. Sociopaths are the cold and heartless ones when it comes to “stepping in another’s shoes” it’s literally impossible for them. Perhaps that’s what you are referring to?

I always figure that as long as they’re killing imaginary warriors, they can’t be killing the rest of us! : )

@whitecarnations: The garden variety definition of a psychopath; “a person suffering from chronic mental disorder with abnormal or violent social behavior.”

Sociopath: “a person with a personality disorder manifesting itself in extreme antisocial attitudes and behavior and a lack of conscience.”

There is lots of speculation but no definite studies, as far as I know.

@gailcalled

IMHO, any differentation between the two is specious. They are just convient categories established by professionals wanting to make a name for themselves. No one really knows the differences, if there are any.

@CaptainHarley: I agree.

@gailcalled

You seem to have an excellent reality orientation! : )

My understanding is that “psychopath” has been replaced with “antisocial personality disorder” or just “sociopath“since the 50’s-60’s. As always too, it is a matter of degree. Most people associate psychopath or sociopaths as being serial killers, most are not.
Martha Stouts ” The sociopath next door” gives many examples of “everyday” sociopaths that quietly go about causing suffering to all those around them in the work place as well in their personal lives.
Studies have shown that the brains of sociopaths have abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex that is responsible for emotional and empathetic response.

In other words sociopaths are born and not made, however, given the right combo of nature/nurture they can either be fairly benign or monsterous in their manifestation.
Ted Bundy was responsible for the term “serial killer” being coined after his lengthy interstate killing sprees in the 70’s.
The vast majority of sociopaths are the ones next door. lol
I’m pretty sure I’ve known a few.

@CaptainHarley of course, when I’m doing one thing, I’m (usually) not doing anything else ;-)

@everyone I mean since our brains can’t really tell very well between reality and movies/video games – wouldn’t killing people in a computer game be able to quench at least part of that murderous thirst? (Ok so I may have, stereotypically, focused mostly on those most antisocial of antisocials but that might help narrow the scope of our little debate here)

I was thinking along the lines of diverting those drives, like a runaway train – you sure as hell can’t stop it, why not force it onto an unused track that goes around in a loop…

Thoughts?

@fremen_warrior I think that, ultimately, a sociopath that is destined to murder will need the actual act of killing to truly satiate their bloodlust. Most of these types have been having fantasies since their childhood or young adolescent years and once they cross the line into actual killing there is no going back.
Maybe, for a rare few, a virtual world of killing might satisfy them for awhile but it could also push those that are so predisposed into real life violence. Impossible to say.

Here’s an example, my daughter has that game ‘Red Dead Redemption”, the western themed game and it has amazing graphics. I’m a life long horse lover and rider and when I watch that game it makes me WANT to go riding, I am not content to simply watch the cool virtual horses, I want to go out and buy myself a new horse and hit the trail in real life. haha

Sooo, it’s anyones guess, but in some ways I think it tempts fate, dependent on the individual in question. It’s like porn or many other things. A normal person that watches porn does not go out and rape, but someone that has impulse control issues and other deviate issues might cross a line if influenced by graphic sexual material.
Healthy people will not be unduly influenced but those teetering on the edge very well might be.

A double edged sword IMO.

@fremen_warrior

Teach us the Weirding Way, oh great one! : D

For a healthy mind, a good shooter is a safety valve and/or a vicarious thrill. I can’t get away with driving 180mph (not that my little Corolla could), but fire up Gran Turismo and put me at the controls of a Skyline R34 and I will go around the track like a maniac. I cannot shoot the annoying motorists on I5, but World of Tanks lets me run around in an M4 Sherman with a 105mm Derp gun.

But I am sane enough to know that those are not real. Once you delve into the realm of insanity, all bets are off because there are no rules. Can they be diverted? Sometimes. But for some, there is no substitute for real violence.

@jerv

You mean kinda like there’s a tape running in their heads saying, “Kill, kill, KILL?”

@CaptainHarley Maybe. Or maybe it’s the orbital mind control lasers, or the Beatles sending them secret messages. Or it could just be too many Twinkies. It’s hard to say because insane people have crazy thought processes.

@jerv

OMG! Where the hell did I leave my tinfoil hat THIS time??? [ panicked look ]

Well regardless, pyschopaths or sociopaths can act in destructive manners, either to themselves or to others. To answer the OP the influence can be great or have no effect at all. Obviously the more inspired they are to “assume the roles of the characters they are portrating” then the more likely they are to commit and mimic. I think anyone could be inspired to kill by video games however, in a controlled environment. Just see how video games inspire young children in America to grow up and join the army for instance, just to hold a gun.

@whitecarnations: ”Just see how video games inspire young children in America to grow up and join the army for instance, just to hold a gun.”

You have statistics, documentation or persuasive evidence that the above supposition is more than a supposition?

@whitecarnations That seems unrealistic. I can acknowledge the persuasion certain games can have, playing them myself, but that’s a claim that’s nearly impossible to back up.

Anyway, my whole point about this, as someone that plays the games in question is that those who are really truly affected by the violent images and as a result do something about it, are those that shouldn’t be allowed near any sort of violent entertainment. People have this perverse thought that video games are somehow more destructive to the child psyche than any other sort of violent activity just because they’re apparently the one doing the killing, and that makes zero sense to me. If a game makes a kid violent, that’s not a bad game or a poor function of society, that’s a bad kid.

@whitecarnations “Just see how video games inspire young children in America to grow up and join the army for instance, just to hold a gun.”

Man, I haven’t laughed that hard in a while! Look, we had people like that before video games ever existed.

Violent games don’t have any effect on violent people, violent people influence what we put in our games nowadays. I’m not saying these “games” don’t influence our children, but I am saying that they are a result of what our world has become. Just like Criminal Minds or CSI. I’ve seen some pretty sick stuff on those shows (I still love them) and someone has to be thinking this stuff up. Not that the people who write those shows or make those games are psychopaths, but you have to be pretty sick in the head to be thinking things up like that.

When violence becomes reality, it can be one factor of several, but almost always not the only factor.