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IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY - craiganderson.org · ISU professor, received the 2017 Kurt Lewin Award for...

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Change agent Craig Anderson started collecting old video gaming systems long before he became an expert in the field. IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011 contacteiastate.edu 515-294-4111 phone More contacts InFacebook C : 1 Twitter 0 Instagram
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Change agent

Craig Anderson started collecting old video gaming systems long before he became an expert inthe field.

IOWA STATEUNIVERSITYIowa State UniversityAmes, Iowa 50011

contacteiastate.edu515-294-4111 phone

More contacts

InFacebook

C : 1 Twitter

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Change Agent: CraigAndersonPosted Jun 26, 2017 10:30 am

Craig Ancerso^ startec collecting old video gaming systemslong before he became an expert in the field. (Larger image)Photos by CPristopPer Gannon

AMES, Iowa — Critics have called Craig Anderson manythings, but a "gamer is definitely not one. While he maynot fit the modern definition - you might say he is moreof a "classic" gamer - Anderson has earned his share ofhigh scores.

"I've been a gamer longer than most of my critics havebeen alive," said Anderson, a Distinguished Professor ofpsychology at Iowa State University who is known for hisexpertise on violent video games. "I was at the forefrontof the technology."

And that's no joke. In the late 1970s, Anderson was agraduate student at Stanford University when he firstplayed the Star Trek video game on a mainframecomputer. As you might imagine, it was nothing liketoday's video games with real-life graphics andsophisticated controllers or joysticks. The gameconsisted of a series of green dots on the screen andrequired players to type text commands to manipulatethe direction of their spaceship or attack the enemy.

Contacts

Craig Anderson,Psychology,caagiastate.edu,515-294-3118Angie Hunt, NewsService,[email protected],515-294-8986

Quick lookCraig Anderson is knownfor his expertise onviolent video games andaggression. What manypeople don't know (andmay be surprised tolearn) is that theDistinguished Professorof psychology has playedvideo games since hewas a graduate studentat Stanford.

Kurt Lewin Award

Anderson and colleague,Brad Bushman, a formerISU professor, receivedthe 2017 Kurt LewinAward for their work onaggression and mediaviolence. The award,presented by The Societyfor the PsychologicalStudy of Social Issues, isnamed for the late KurtLewin, a pioneer in thescience of groupdynamics. Anderson andRtishmnn were

"If you wanted to shoot a Klingon, you had to typewhether you wanted to use a phasor or proton torpedo,and you had to type the direction in which to fire,"Anderson explained. "Once you typed it all in, then you'dhit the go button. If you didn't type fast enough theKlingon ship would move and get you."

To see the smile on Anderson's face as he talks aboutthe game, or how he owned one of the first Nintendogaming systems, its hard to envision him as the old,angry, anti-gamer as he's characterized by his critics. Butit's an image Anderson says the video game industrylikes to promote.

"The industry is just looking for a way to deflect criticismof its products," he said. "It doesn't matter if it's factual ornot."

It would be an exaggeration to describe Anderson as ahard-core gamer. He says garners of his era were moreoften called "computer geeks," and video games were ahobby, not an all-consuming passion. Still, it is a side ofAnderson few know about, or would expect from one ofthe most widely cited scholars on video game violenceand aggression.

A pioneer in his fieldAcademics are often measured by the impact of theirresearch. Anderson has received awards and honors toonumerous to list. However, some of the more notableaccomplishments — being named one of the top 200"Eminent Psychologists in the Modern Era" and testifyingbefore a U.S. Senate committee — reflect the significanceof his work.

Anderson, d'oector of Iowa State's Center for the Studyof Violence, rever set out to be a pioneer and one of themost widely cited scholars on video game violence.Much of his early research focused on theories related tocommon social beliefs, attributions for good and badevents and decision biases. It provided the foundation,combined with his work on media effects, for Andersontn rici‘halnn tAdhnt ne. torhnInnictc lenrodo inr inw a c thc. ritarichrn1

recognized at thesociety's conference inJune.

No playing favorites

There's no one videogame that Andersonconsiders his favorite, buthe has plenty of storiesabout playing the gamesthat stand out. Forexample, while onsabbatical in 1986, hewas working on a majorreview article related totemperature andaggression. To staymotivated and awake,Anderson would spend45 minutes readingvolumes of researchmaterial and then play afootball video game for10 minutes on astand-alone Vectrexgaming system.

Career by numbers

• 230+ journalarticlespublished

• 32,000 citationson GeogleScholar

• Ranked No. 1 incitations amongmedia scholars

• Ranked No. 2amongaggressionscholars andamong violence

to develop what psychologists know today as the generalaggression model.

Even

Some of the gaming hardware Anderson hascollected includes an old Macintosh SE, and theoriginal Sony Playstation and Nintendo Entertainmentsystems. (Larger image)

though Anderson enjoyed playing video games, theywere not on his radar as a research theme when hestarted studying aggression. A six-year stint in the ArmyReserve partially influenced his interest in aggression,and his initial studies examined the relationship betweenaggressive behavior and temperature. He credits thedecision to expand the scope of his work to a graduatestudent seeking guidance on her dissertation. Andersonsuggested video games.

"By that time (early 1990s) video games were muchmore violent. It wasn't games like Centipede or Frogger,which were once considered violent because your frogwas squished by a car," he said. "I was playing StreetFighter and Wolfenstein 3D, both of which had nonstopviolent action, but very little gore. Wolfenstein 3D wasone of the first games to show red blood when you killedan enemy."

Recognizing this shift in violence led Anderson and histhen-graduate student, Karen Dill, to develop a pair ofstudies for her dissertation, which showed that briefexposure to violent video games increased aggressivebehavior, and that repeated exposure was associatedwith physical aggression and violence. It was a

among violencescholars

• Ranked amongthe top 30 socialpsychologists

• Listed amongtop 200 "EminentPsychologists ofthe Modern Era"

Change AgentsDianaCochranhelpsgrowIowa'sfledglinghops industry.

MattDarrworks tomakesure

innovation developed atIowa State finds its wayinto the hands of farmers.

MichaelYoungwants tohelpstudentsexcel inscience, technology,engineering and math bybridging the culturaldivide that exists in manypublic schools.

significant finding, but Dill's new academic jobresponsibilities made publishing a paper difficult. Severalyears later, Anderson and Dill revisited the data,conducted a more powerful data analysis and submittedthe paper.

"It's now the most highly-cited video game paper outthere," he said. "The industry people and their supportershate it and attack it."

Still attacked as a moral crusaderDecades of research demonstrating the link betweenviolent video games and aggression has not stopped thethreats Anderson has received and the attempts todiscredit his work. One of his most recent papers — afirst-of-its-kind, cross-cultural study — providescompelling evidence that media violence affectsaggressive behavior. Still, Anderson remains a target.

"The personal attacks and threats were and still aredistressing, although less so these days," Anderson said.'Critics have accused me of being a 'moral crusader,' butI've never focused on the morality of video games. Thedata are the data.

Its more than nasty emails or malicious online blogs.While testifying as an expert witness, Anderson says hereceived a stack of reports that the video game industryhad to disclose as part of the court case. That's how helearned of the industry's efforts to attack his work — evengoing as far as to hire a Ph.D. to try and poke holes inAnderson's studies.

Sticking to the scienceExperience has taught Anderson that the video gameindustry will do anything to sell its products. He cannothelp but express his disgust at the fact that although theSupreme Court has defended laws protecting childrenfrom seeing naked bodies (which he notes, "isn'tinherently harmful, unless paired with violence orinappropriate behaviors, beliefs, or attitudes"), it does notapply the same standards to video games displaying

JamesHillknowsjust whatquestionsto ask toprepare Iowa State'ssolar car team forcompetition.

AngelaShawuses her

microbiology backgroundto make U.S. fruit andvegetable productionsafer.

YukoSato hadto hit thegroundrunningas thenew extension poultryveterinarian at IowaState.

MarkEdelmantakessome

unconventionalapproaches to helping

extreme violence.r r • L P , M , • • • • ' V V % V • O N • I F I r I I

Iowans turn their ideasinto new businesses.

"Indeed, the majority decision essentially said thatregardless of age, children's First Amendment rightsinclude the right to view, purchase, or play any violententertainment media, as long as it didn't include explicitimages of genitalia," Anderson said.

It would certainly be understandable if Anderson hadconsidered throwing in the towel at some point during hiscareer and taking his research in a different direction.But Anderson says the attacks have likely made himmore committed to his work on video game violence.And he has science on his side, along with many childadvocacy and parenting groups, and scientificorganizations such as the American Academy ofPediatrics, the American Psychological Association andthe International Society for Research on Aggression.

"If you know the literature on media effects, you can'tcome to any other conclusion than there are harmfuleffects from playing violent video games," Andersonsaid. "If you deny this conclusion, you're eitherintentionally misconstruing the research or you don'tunderstand it."

Ajay Nairtravelsthe statehelpingfruit and

vegetable growersimprove their operations.

WarrenMaddenhas justaboutseen itall duringhis 50 years at IowaState.

JillPruetzoften

encounters the unknownwhile studying chimps inSenegal.

JuneOldstook a

non-traditional path tobecome the veterinarianat Blank Park Zoo.


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