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Video Game
Violence Desensitizes Players to Real Life Violence, MU
Researcher Finds
Shannon Burke, Education News, December 7, 2005
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Video games such
as Gun and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas might be at the top of
many Christmas lists this year, despite their graphic violent
content and mature ratings. These games might be mere
entertainment to some, but a researcher at the University of
Missouri-Columbia found that playing these violent games changes
a person's brain function and desensitizes chronic players to
real world violence.
“Most of us naturally have a strong aversion to the sight of
blood and gore,” said Bruce Bartholow, assistant professor of
psychological sciences at MU. “Surgeons and soldiers may need to
overcome these reactions in order to perform their duties. But,
for most people, a diminished reaction to the effects of
violence is not adaptive. It can reduce inhibitions against
aggressive behavior and increase the possibility of inflicting
violence on others.”
Bartholow, along with Brad Bushman from the University of
Michigan and Marc Sestir at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill , asked 39 male undergraduate students how often
they played their five favorite video games and how violent the
games were. Next, the researchers showed participants a series
of images on a computer screen, including emotionally neutral
images, such as a man raiding a bicycle; violent images, such as
a man holding a gun to another man's head; and negative, but
nonviolent images, such as a dead dog. As participants viewed
these images, the researchers measured a type of brainwave,
known as P300, which is believed to reflect how people evaluate
images like these.
After viewing the pictures, participants were told that the last
part of the experiment involved a competition with another
participant to see who could press a button faster following a
series of tones. Before each tone, participants set the level of
a noise blast that their opponent would receive if the opponent
lost. There actually was no opponent. This method is often used
in lab studies as a measure for aggression.
The researchers found that the participants who routinely played
violent video games showed less brain reactivity, measured by
diminished amplitude of the P300 brainwaves, when they viewed
the violent images compared to the equally negative, nonviolent
image. They also found that the smaller a participant's brain
response to violent images, the more aggressively he behaved
during the final part of the experiment.
“These findings are among the first to link chronic violent
video game play, diminished brain responses and aggressive
behavior,” Bartholow said. “People often assume that any
negative effects of playing violent games are short-lived, but
these results suggest that repeated exposure to violent video
games has lasting negative consequences for both brain function
and behavior.”
This study will be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal
of Experimental Social Psychology.
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