Press-tige

But I Read It in the Papers

Przybylski's results suggested fun came mostly from satisfying psychological needs of competence and autonomy. Newspaper reports said things like "Violence is not a major reason why people play computer games," (Australian Associated Press), even though Przybylski's studies focused on whether gamers got additional enjoyment from violent content, not why they were playing them in the first place. A Daily Telegraph story's lead said Przybylski's studies showed "players like the adventure rather than the blood and gore" even though Przybylski never uses the word "adventure" his actual published report. Both of these stories also incorporate substantial portions of the Rochester press release.

There are other reasons why journalists shouldn't rely on press releases as their sole sources of information. Schools choose which research will receive the press release treatment based on whether it will catch an editor's eye, not necessarily by the scientific value of the research. "Many studies - I would probably say "most" - are very specialized, [and] the findings are only of interest to specialists in the field," says Hagen by email. "Fortunately for us, many of our psychological studies, however, are accessible, and so make good stories for the general public. As the largest form of entertainment in the world today, everyone knows what a videogame is and everyone is interested in psychological findings about them." More frequent newspaper coverage of videogame studies than other, less popular topics can make it seem like more research and consensus exists than there really is.

Other factors affect newspaper coverage as well. Ferguson says a press release from a smaller school like Texas A&M International won't get as much attention as one from a bigger university like Iowa State. Similarly, researchers who have been doing their work for many years, such as Dr. Craig Anderson, have become entrenched in reporters' Rolodexes and will get called for comment much more often, which limits the range of opinions most stories express. Gentile wonders whether newspapers neglected to cover a recent study of his on how cooperative games can foster cooperative behavior simply because the press release was sent out later in the week, as opposed to a Monday or Tuesday when newspapers are typically more starved for content.

So, when newspaper readers unfold a page and settle their eyes on a story about videogame research, they may not be getting the best information possible. They may be getting a regurgitated press release that's missing the important caveats and limitations that are an essential part of any scientific report. They may be getting an imprecise account of the research that oversimplifies the complicated methods and results the researchers described. And they may not receive the proper context or expert opinion to properly evaluate the study's importance.

What's the best course of action, then?

Ferguson advises people to read everything carefully. "It's just too easy for values or opinions or that kind of stuff to infuse social sciences. Part of that is just because our standards of evidence and the statistics we use are very weak," he says. "I think it would be great for the general populace to know that and be more cynical about all results they get, including me. I'm not saying I'm immune to any of this. If I make people more cynical about my results as much as they become more cynical about everybody else's, that's great. People should be much more cautious about interpreting results from the social sciences."

Chris LaVigne studied psychology as an undergraduate at Simon Fraser University where he wrote a paper about Freudian interpretations of Star Wars called "Sometimes a Lightsaber is Just a Lightsaber."