Coltan Scrivner

millions and millions of dollars spent.

And the outcome of that was just that violent video games don't seem to really have an effect on real world violence.

Yes, kids who are incredibly violent, a lot of them also like violent video games, but they were already violent.

These consequences and like intellectualizing all of these consequences.

I would love to travel back in time and become an assassin.

There might be some.

I don't see it.

Yeah.

And I think that, as you mentioned, the people who grew up on slasher films and Mortal Kombat, they seem fine.

And in fact, they may be a little better, right?

I've done some studies showing that people who engage with scary things, scary play generally, especially as kids.

And that can take a lot of forms, right?

Kids can watch a scary movie or play a scary video game, but they can also engage in

scary pretend clay and they often do like if you have young kids and you leave them alone with their friends what do they do play things outside before there were phones and things the games they play tend to have a bad guy or an evil monster or terrible thing that's just the kind of stories that they intuitively come up with

Even the group-based games that kids play like Tag or Hide and Seek, those are just predator-prey mapped games, right?

You have someone who's it, and they're trying to get you, and if they get you, you are out.

Or they are hunting you, and you have to hide from them.

For kids, those are probably actually a little bit thrilling, a little bit scary, a little bit... They don't look like it to adults, but they are a little bit thrilling for kids.

And...

There's some good evidence that kids who engage in thrilling play are less likely to develop anxiety later in life.