Whether playing video games has negative effects is something that has been debated for 30 years, in much the same way that rock and roll, television, and even the novel faced much the same criticisms in their time.

Purported negative effects such as addiction, increased aggression, and various health consequences such as obesity and repetitive strain injuries tend to get far more media coverage than the positives. I know from my own research examining both sides that my papers on video game addiction receive far more publicity than my research into the social benefits of, for example, playing online role-playing games.

Instead of dying out, Anti-Semitic myths have withstood the test of time.

By Asa Simon Mittman, California State University, Chico

When is a cat not a cat? Biodiversity Heritage Library (adapted), CC BY

By Ben Holt, Imperial College London and Knud Andreas Jønsson, Imperial College London

Different people behave in different ways behind the wheel of a car. Flickr/Nuno Sousa, CC BY-NC-ND

By Vanessa Beanland, Australian National University and Martin Sellbom, Australian National University

Blaming 'Jordan syndrome' doesn't really cut it. British celebrity Katie Price (R) on the red carpet before the start of the Vienna State Opera Ball in Vienna, Austria, 11 February 2010. Robert Jaeger/EPA

By Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor, University of Leicester

Sharon Stone, in Basic Instinct, dramatized the catastrophic actions of a clever yet unhinged woman. EPA/ Peter Foley

By Suzie Gibson

Mental illness and women’s sexuality are frequently aligned – on screen and off. The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, pathologized women’s sexuality. Indeed, his definition of a woman as someone lacking a penis has underwritten depictions of women’s sexuality.

Countless novels, films and TV programs continually pathologize women through and because of their sexuality.