Asking the Right Questions, A Guide to Critical Thinking, 8th Ed

144 Chapter 10
Should parents take away all of their children's "violent" video games?
Not until they consider rival causes! How else might one explain these group
differences?
First, let's outline the reasoning:
CONCLUSION: (Researchers' hypothesis) Playing violent video games appears to cause
an increase in violence among children.
REASON: (Researchers' evidence) Research study showed children who played violent
video games were more likely to get into physical altercations with other children
than were those children who did not play violent video games.
Note that the words appears to cause in the conclusion tell us the researchers
are making a causal claim about the evidence. But other hypotheses can explain
this evidence.
The report fails to tell us how the children were selected into the three
different groups. It is possible that the children were allowed to self-select
what games they play, and perhaps children who are more likely to be violent
tend to choose "violent" video games. If so, it is possible the researcher has the
causal link reversed. Also, nothing is revealed as to how the "play" situation was
set up for the children. Perhaps the room or selection of toys was set up in
such a way to encourage physical altercations among those who played the
"violent" video games. We bet you can think of other reasons these groups—
violent video game players and not—differ in their likelihood of resorting to
physical violence.
We cannot make you aware of all possible rival causes. In the following
selections, however, we provide several clues for finding common rival
causes.
Rival Causes for Differences Between Groups
One of the most common ways for researchers to try to find a cause for some
event is to compare groups. For example, you will frequently encounter the
following kinds of references to group comparisons:
Researchers compared an experimental group to a control group.
One group received treatment X; the other group didn't.
A group with learning disabilities and a group without learning disabilities.