Evidence in the Violent Video Game Debate
As seen in Scalia’s critique, one of the main flaws in the research used by the state of California in Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association was its lack of causational evidence. Most of the research concerning the relationship between violent video games relied upon correlational evidence. Correlational studies measure two variables and their relationship to one another. Establishing a correlation between two variables often serves as a starting point for research, but it does not prove causation. Consider the case of ice cream sales and violent crime—as one rises so does the other. The two are correlated, but no one is seriously considering banning ice cream. That is because, upon deeper analysis, it was determined that there is a third cause that drives an increase in both: higher temperatures.