20 Minutes of Play, A Lifetime of Glorious Violence
Well we sat on the edge of the river,
the crowd screamed, "Sacrifice the liver!"
From DNA Evolutions:
NEW YORK: Playing violent video games, even for only 20 minutes, desensitises 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.
The test:
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 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, but it surprised us that only 20 minutes of exposure was enough to show this effect,” Carnagey said.
Conclusion?
Translated to the real world, these signs of lower emotional upset may mean a person is more desensitised to violence.
So let me get this straight: Play video games for 20 minutes, video taped violence doesn't seem so bad. Ergo, subject is desensitized to real violence.
Nope, no leaps of logic there.
(link found at WomenGamers.com)
August 11th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Ummm…. yeah.
Next test: Let’s do the same experiment, with some sort of strenuous exercise. Like playing Tennis for 20 minutes.
Now we may find that signs of arousal are also reduced upon exposure to violent videotapes, we may make the SAME conclusion.
TENNIS desensitizes people to violence! Think about the CHILDREN! Do not let your kids play Tennis or they may be responsible for the next COLUMBINE!
August 11th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Good point. I wonder how long they waited between the 20 minutes of violent video games and the viewing of video-taped violence. The study is pretty worthless unless they do similar tests with other activities. I’d be willing to bet that 20 minutes of FOX news would have the same effect.
August 11th, 2006 at 9:08 am
By the way, I miss Little Amber-Wamber..
August 11th, 2006 at 11:55 am
Yeah, but with all the violence on TV and movies, not to mention dead bodies on the news, how can anybody be sufficiently aroused by any type of simulated (or videotaped) violence. The real test would be as such: Make subject play a video game. Ask subject to kick the crap out another subject.
Check out Terra Nova’s take on the whole thing, if you haven’t already. They’ve got some actual numbers.
August 11th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony desensitized me to ultraviolence.
August 11th, 2006 at 3:11 pm
Did violence ultrasensitize you to Beethoven’s 9th Symphony?
August 12th, 2006 at 3:22 am
The biggest fault of the study is that it doesn’t really show desensitization. If it did, successive playing of violence games AND watching violent videos would result is less arrousal. All they have shown is that after watching depictions of violence, other depictions of violence garner less arrousal. Which is no big surprise… if you were to witness a bloody fifteen car fatal pile up on the highway, its likely that for the next few hours, or even days or months, seeing single and double car accidents might not phase you at all because you’ve seen worse very recently.
First, they don’t seem to have made any distinction between participation in violence and watching violence. In the game, you are part of the violence, likely doing all the killing, while with the videotape you are simply watching violence that you know is not happening right now because its video, not a live feed of the next room. If you just played a game where you hacked up hundreds of monsters using a chainsaw, would a taped courtroom outburst really seem bad? If you just assassinated people in a mission, would watching a video of two guys stab another guy seem so awful? Possibly… but how soon? It doesn’t appear that they did any re-testing to see if the desensitization remained in the long term (like showing them a new videotape of real violence a week later). At best they have proven only that when exposed to violence, more violence doesn’t make you react the same.
In New York on September 11th, 2001, thousands of people walked out of New York after seeing planes fly into the World Trade Center and the buildings collapse. If you tested those people at that time, I’d be willing to bet they’d have been a little desensitized to violence. Its a natural human coping mechanism. First you get shock, then your brain switches into survival mode at which point being shocked would hinder you. People who don’t have immediate desensitation to violence are the people who just stand there screaming “Oh my God!” not trying to save themselves while the gunman sprays bullets around them.
August 18th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I’ve been playing “violent” video games since Wolfenstein and I guess even before that in arcades and I haven’t killed anyone yet. Nobody important anyhow.