WebMD Medical News
07-28-06
By Miranda Hitti
Players of Violent Games Reacted Less to Scenes of Real-Life Violence
July 28, 2006 -- Playing violent video games may dull people's physical reactions
to real-life violence.
"It appears that individuals who play violent video games habituate, or 'get used
to,' all the violence and eventually become physiologically numb to it," write
Nicholas Carnagey, MS, and colleagues.
"The modern entertainment media landscape could accurately be described as
an effective systematic violence-desensitization tool," they add.
Their article is in press for the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
Carnagey is due to get a doctorate in psychology from Iowa State
University this August.
Playing Games
Carnagey's team studied 257 college students -- 124 men and 133 women.
First, the students noted their typical video game use. They also took aggression
surveys and had their heart rate and galvanic skin response checked.
(Galvanic skin response measures the skin's electrical resistance. It's an
indication of bodily (physiological) arousal.)
Next, the students played either a violent or nonviolent video game for 20
minutes.
The violent video games were Carmageddon, Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat, and
Future Cop. The nonviolent video games were Glider Pro, 3D Pinball, 3D Munch
Man, and Tetra Madness.
When the game session ended, the students repeated the heart rate and
galvanic skin response tests. Both groups showed similar results.
But the study wasn't over yet.
Watching Real-Life Violence
The students' last task: Watch a 10-minute videotape of real-life violence
(shootings, prison fights, police confrontations, and courtroom outbursts).
During the screening, the researchers monitored the students' heart rate and
galvanic skin responses.
Students who had played violent video games showed less physiological
response to the real-life videos.
The study "demonstrates that violent video game exposure can cause
desensitization to real-life violence," write Carnagey and colleagues.
"Children receive high doses of media violence," they note.
"It initially is packaged in ways that are not too threatening, with cute cartoon-like
characters," the researchers continue. "Older children consume increasingly
threatening and realistic violence, but the increases are gradual and always in a
way that is fun."
Which medium is most desensitizing -- TV, movies, or video games? And are
some people more affected than others?
Those are good questions for future research, Carnagey's team notes.
SOURCES: Carnagey, N. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, July 17,
2006; online edition. News release, Iowa State University.