Dr. Craig A. Anderson Weighs in on Children and Violent Video Games

Dr. Craig A. Anderson, a Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Iowa State University, sits down with Dr. Bob to discuss the impact that violent video games have on children. A must listen conversation for parents, teachers and caregivers. Craig A. Anderson, Ph.D. (Stanford University, 1980) is a Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Iowa State University, Past-President of the International Society for Research on Aggression, and Editor of the International Society for Research on Aggression journal "Aggressive Behavior." His 270+ publications have received over 61,000 citations. His 40+ years of publishing on aggression and violence is highly related to Dr. Weiss’s goal of searching for ways in which world peace could be attained. This is especially true of his General Aggression Model, and of his related work on rapid climate change and violent behavior. Recent publications on these two topics (e.g., Anderson & Bushman, 2018; Miles-Novelo & Anderson, 2022) can be downloaded from: http://www.craiganderson.org/wp-content/uploads/caa/recpub.html  The General Aggression Model (GAM) is a bio-social-cognitive developmental model of human aggression and violence that unites a host of individual difference, social, developmental, biological, and cognitive models of social behavior. The 2002 Annual Review of Psychology article that detailed the General Aggression Model has been cited over 6000 times. GAM has been applied to clinical, social, personality and developmental psychology; pediatrics; criminology; war and climate change, among other fields. In 2017, Dr. Anderson received the Kurt Lewin Award from SPSSI. The corresponding 2018 article updated GAM.  Dr. Anderson’s 2022 Oxford University Press monograph with then Ph.D. student (now Assistant Professor) Miles-Novelo presents a broad GAM-inspired model of three ways that rapid global warming increases violence. It summarizes multiple biological, social, sociological, and political factors involved in climate change and violence (including war); it also offers multiple interventions at individual, social, societal, and political levels needed to avert the worst violent consequences of climate change, and thereby contribute to world peace. His earlier empirical and theoretical work on heat and aggressive/violent behavior (e.g., Anderson, 1989); attributional processes and effects (e.g., Anderson & Weiner, 1992); human inference and decision making (e.g., Anderson $ Kellam, 1992); media effects on antisocial and prosocial behavior (e.g., Anderson et al., 2003) contributed greatly to the development of GAM, and to the understanding of direct effects of heat stress on violent behavior. As GAM expanded in scope and clarity, it was used to explore possible effects of global warming as early as 1998 (Anderson & Bushman). The first full integration of GAM and climate change was published by Anderson & DeLisi (2011). As noted earlier, the 2022 Miles-Novelo & Anderson monograph goes well beyond merely demonstrating myriad ways the rapid climate change is increasing violent behavior at multiple levels; it also summarizes social psychological, sociological, and political factors that contribute to this violence enhancing effect and offers science-based interventions that should be taken minimize these harmful effects while increasing world-wide peace and individual security and well-being. In sum, Dr. Anderson’s career has made numerous contributions to understanding world violence from a multidisciplinary perspective. He is now using that perspective to address one of humanity’s most dangerous existential crises, that of rapid climate change and prospects for world peace or world violence. His publications can be downloaded from www.CraigAnderson.Org.   How to contact Dr. Craig A. Anderson: Dr. Craig A. Anderson Website https://www.commonsensemedia.org https://childrenandmedia.org.au https://www.israsociety.com/special-statement Free pdf version of my 2020 book:  Game On! Sensible Answers about Video Games and Media Violence.   Note that the URL for the Game On! Book is: http://www.craiganderson.org/wp-content/uploads/caa/GameOn%21book.html My newest Book: Climate Change and Human Behavior (Cambridge University Press) How to contact Dr. Bob: Dr. Bob on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChztMVtPCLJkiXvv7H5tpDQ Dr. Bob on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drroberthamilton/ Dr. Bob on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bob.hamilton.1656