I have been reading Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion, a light summer reading (non-work related, I though), which had some interesting stuff. Dawkins cites Gregory S. Paul who concludes: “higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies”. (Cited in Dawkins 2006, pp. 263.)
On the other hand, if we look game sales and violent crimes rates seem not to correlate (see, Jesper Juul’s blog entry).
What we should conclude from these? Ban religions and promote games? At least, Paul’s research gives somereasons to be cautious on media effect studies.
References
- Dawkins, R. (2006). The God Delusion. London: Black Swan.
Petri Lankoski 