The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence

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Abstract

Past research shows that violent video game exposure increases aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal, aggressive behaviors, and decreases helpful behaviors. However, no research has experimentally examined violent video game effects on physiological desensitization, defined as showing less physiological arousal to violence in the real world after exposure to video game violence in the virtual world. This experiment attempts to fill this gap. Participants reported their media habits and then played one of eight violent or nonviolent video games for 20 min. Next, participants watched a 10-min videotape containing scenes of real-life violence while heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR) were monitored. Participants who previously played a violent video game had lower HR and GSR while viewing filmed real violence, demonstrating a physiological desensitization to violence. Results are interpreted using an expanded version of the General Aggression Model. Links between desensitization, antisocial, and prosocial behavior are discussed.

Section snippets

Desensitizing effects of violent entertainment media

The term “desensitization” has been used by scholars, public policy analysts, politicians, and the lay public to mean effects as varied as: (a) an increase in aggressive behavior; (b) a reduction in physiological arousal to real-life violence; (c) a flattening of affective reactions to violence; (d) a reduction in likelihood of helping a violence victim; (e) a reduction in sympathy for a violence victim; (f) a reduction in the sentence for a convicted violent offender, (g) a reduction in the

Media violence and physiological desensitization

There are surprisingly few media violence studies examining physiological–emotional indicators of desensitization. Due to ambiguity on how to operationalize desensitization, research on this phenomenon is also somewhat unclear. One of the earliest studies demonstrating the potential desensitizing effect of violent media measured GSR of individuals while they watched a documentary film of a tribal ceremony that included making incisions on the human body (Lazarus, Speisman, Mordkoff, & Davison,

GAM, desensitization, and sequela

There are theoretical reasons for expecting violent media to desensitize individuals to real-life violence in both short-term (within 1 hour of exposure) and long-term (repeated exposure) contexts. The General Aggression Model (GAM) provides a useful social-cognitive framework for understanding desensitization processes.

GAM has been described in detail elsewhere (e.g., Anderson and Bushman, 2002, Anderson and Carnagey, 2004, Anderson and Huesmann, 2003), so it will be described only briefly

Overview

In this experiment, participants first completed measures of video game preferences and trait aggressiveness. Participants then played either a violent or nonviolent video game for 20 min. Afterwards, they watched a 10-min videotape containing filmed scenes of real violence while heart rate (HR) and galvanic skin response (GSR) were continuously monitored. Finally, participants rated the video game they played on several dimensions. We predicted that violent game players would show less

Participants

Participants were 257 college students (124 men and 133 women) who received extra course credit in exchange for their voluntary participation.

Procedure

Participants were tested individually. They were told that the purpose of the study was to evaluate different types of media. After consent procedures were completed, 5 min baseline HR and GSR measurements were taken, using finger electrodes placed on the three middle fingers of the non-dominant hand.

Preliminary analyses

Within each type of video game (i.e., violent, nonviolent), we tested whether the four different games produced different effects on HR and GSR. No significant differences were found among the four violent or among the four nonviolent games on HR or GSR. The random-effects variance estimates for video game exemplars ranged from 0 to 4.43 (M = 1.06). None of the maximum likelihood random-effects variance estimates significantly differed from zero, ps > .05. Thus, the data were collapsed across

Discussion

The results demonstrate that playing a violent video game, even for just 20 min, can cause people to become less physiologically aroused by real violence. Participants randomly assigned to play a violent video game had relatively lower HR and GSR while watching actual footage of people being beaten, stabbed, and shot than did those randomly assigned to play a nonviolent video game.

One issue that arises frequently in the media violence literature concerns individual differences in susceptibility

Conclusion

The present experiment demonstrates that violent video game exposure can cause desensitization to real-life violence. In this experiment, violent game players were less physiologically aroused by real-life violence than were nonviolent game players. It appears that individuals who play violent video games habituate or “get used to” all the violence and eventually become physiologically numb to it.

The integration of systematic desensitization processes and models of helping behavior with GAM is

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    The authors thank Doug Bonett for his help with the HR analyses.

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