Forbes
08-09-06
Violent Video Games Numb Players to Real-Life Brutality
WEDNESDAY, Aug. 9 (HealthDay News) -- Playing violent video games, even
for only 20 minutes, desensitizes people to real-world violence, new research
contends.
"We found that the subjects who played violent video games for 20 minutes had
lower physiologic responses when they watched videos of real-life violence," said
Nicholas Carnagey, who conducted the research while a psychology
instructor at Iowa State University in Ames.
He explained that these lowered physical responses meant the person felt less
emotional upset when viewing real-life brutality.
Prior studies have reported a correlation between exposure to violent video
games and desensitization to real violence. But Carnagey's team say theirs is the
first to expose subjects to video games and then measure their physiologic
reactions to real-life violence through heart rate and galvanic skin response,
which evaluates perspiration.
As heart rate and perspiration increase, so does emotional arousal, said
Carnagey, who is now a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan
and the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam.
Released online ahead of print in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
the study included 257 college students (124 men and 133 women) who were
tested before and after playing violent or non-violent video games for 20 minutes.
Violent games included Carmageddon, Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat and Future
Cop. Non-violent games included Glider Pro, 3D Pinball, 3D Munch Man and
Tetra Madness.
All of the participants had similar heart rates and other signs of arousal before
exposure to real-life violence, which included videotaped shootings, prison fights
and police confrontations.
"The only time we saw physiologic differences [among participants] was while
they were watching real-life violence," Carnagey said.
The people who played violent video games for 20 minutes had lower galvanic
skin responses (lower perspiration) and heart rates while watching the real-life
footage. "A lot of other studies on exposure to violent video games indicated that
we would find this [desensitization], but it surprised us that only 20 minutes of
exposure was enough to show this effect," Carnagey said.
Translated to the real world, these signs of lower emotional upset may mean a
person is more desensitized to violence. He or she may also be less able to
identify violence and less likely to help victims of violence, Carnagey explained.
The findings could raise a red flag for parents.
Even though the study targeted college students, "there's no doubt that these
results apply to younger children, and there's every reason to be concerned that
the effects be may even greater in those under the age of 7 because these
children don't distinguish very well between fantasy and reality," said pediatrician
Dimitri A. Christakis, director of the Child Health Institute at the University of
Washington, Seattle, and author of the book The Elephant in the Living Room:
Make TV Work for Your Kids.
Researchers already know that exposure to violent media in many different forms
leads to violence and aggression in the real world, but the mechanism for how
this occurs is less well-known. The study suggests that desensitization -- defined
by researchers as a reduction in emotion-related physical reaction to real
violence -- may be a critical factor in that pathway.
The caution for parents is real, Christakis said. "Children are much more mediasavvy at a much younger age than their parents were," he noted.
Many parents believe that violent games won't make their children more violent,
but they might not be witnessing any increase in aggressive behaviors first-hand,
he noted. The negative effects of video game exposure often infiltrate children's
real-life games, Christakis said. "This increasing violence is mutually enhancing
in a negative way," he warned, because "it reinforces violence in their own lives."
Much of the media children watch is laden with violence, Carnagey added. In Grated movies and games, violence is often packaged in a "cute and friendly
manner," the Iowa researcher noted.
And "as children grow older, they're exposed to ever more realistic and gory
scenes," he said. "Parents might say, 'My child is not ready to see that yet,' but
what does that comment mean? When would children be ready to see someone
beheaded?"
This unintended desensitization from exposure to very violent media can have a
real impact on children's development, according to the researchers.
"In real life, were not talking about a simple 20-minute exposure, were talking
about exposure that's hours on end, day after day," Carnagey said. "Parents
should be aware and active in their child's exposure to media. They should really
think about what messages they're exposing their children to."
The study also raises some important questions for future research, including
whether the effects of short-term exposure to violent games lingers, and what the
cumulative effect might be of playing violent video games over days, weeks, and
years.