12
Steven Beasley II 1 Desensitization to Real-life Violence Due to Violence in Video Games Steven Beasley II
Steven Beasley II 1
Desensitization to Real-life Violence
Due to Violence in Video Games
Steven Beasley II
Steven Beasley II 2
Table of contents
Introduction p.3
Desensitization p.4
Video games and aggression – fiction p.5
What violent video games really do? p.6
Desensitization is bad. p.6
Video p.7
Video game violence is ok? p.8
More reasons Desensitization is bad p.9
Can we do anything? p.10
Conclusion p.11
References p.12
Steven Beasley II 3
Introduction
Violence is everywhere from video games to cartoons that children watch. In all of these forms of media the violence
is not regulated very well. Some of the more extremely loose regulations on violence can be found in video games. Video
games today are becoming more and more violent. These games can have extremely graphic scenes of violence that share
no expense in the severity of violence. In some games there
can be anything from disembowelment to domestic violence.
Even in games that are rated and created for younger
audiences you can find mild violence. These violent games
have been showing children and teens that violence can be
another way to problem solving and is more acceptable; this
is desensitizing them to actual life violence. This is not
acceptable and needs to change.
Steven Beasley II 4
Desensitization
The main way video game violence affects people is by making them desensitizing to violence .Desensitization to
violence is “a reduction in emotion-related physiological reactivity to real violence” (Carnagey, N. 2007). The social
normality of the modern day sees that one’s physiological reaction to violence be dampened due to the lessening of the
severity of real-life violence. More and more people every day are growing up being surrounded by violent imagery and it is
changing them. The human phycology can become “used to”
the sight of different things and the emotions normally felt
can be greatly lessened. “It appears that individuals who play
violent video games habituate or ‘get used to’ all the violence
and eventually become physiologically numb to it”
(Carnagey, N. 2007). When a person becomes desensitized to
something, their emotions towards that thing become altered
and in the case of violence they become unsympathetic to
others committing or receiving the violent actions. Desensitization can happen to many different things, but the most
commonly seen is to violence. Other than desensitization, video games affect people in different ways.
Steven Beasley II 5
Video games and aggression – fiction.
Violent video games have many effects on people. The most common
and most disputed is that violent video games bring out violence in others. In
some cases this is true, but not in all. One study even found that violence can be
attributed to bullying in schools. “The 2008 study Grand Theft Childhood
reported that 60% of middle school boys who played at least one Mature-rated
game hit or beat up someone, compared to 39% of boys that did not play
Mature-rated games”(Kutner, 2008). These studies try and make connections
between violent video games and violent behavior in children, but the truth is
that the connections are mostly just fabricated. “My impression is that social
science made up its mind that video games cause aggression before many data
were available, and has subsequently attempted to fit square pieces of evidence
into round theoretical holes” (Ferguson, 2007). Like Ferguson said, the
connections made between video game violence and violence in the world are
often just thrown together.
Steven Beasley II 6
What violent video games really do?
The violence in video games affects us in many different ways. One of the most common is aggression, but
underneath the aggression there lies a more extreme problem. This problem deals with empathy and how video games are
affecting. “In a 2004 study of 150 fourth and fifth graders by Professor Jeanne Funk, violent video games were the only
type of media associated with lower empathy. Empathy, the ability to understand and enter into another's feelings, plays an
important role in the process of moral evaluation and is believed to inhibit aggressive behavior” (ProCon.org., 2012). If
more children are becoming less empathetic to others, then this is a problem. There is a possibility that in the future if these
patterns continue, then the whole world could be less empathetic of others. If others become less empathic then more
violence will be over looked and less people will care about the
violent actions of others.
Desensitization is bad.
Desensitization due to video game violence is a bad thing.
Like previously mentioned people become less empathetic when
they are subjected to mass quantities of violence in video games.
Steven Beasley II 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxyTO-Q40u4
This could affect society in many different ways. One way is that there could be less “heroes” or people that help others in
times of need. An example of this is if a person is in a dire situation, more people might just watch instead of helping.
“People exposed to media violence become ‘‘comfortably numb’’ to the pain and suffering of others and are consequently
less helpful” (Bushman, B., 2009). This could directly affect our society because people’s brains would be less responsive
to violence. “That is, at least for individuals whose prior exposure to video game violence was low, playing a violent video
game caused a reduction in the brain's response to depictions of real-life violence” (Engelhardt, 2011). As Engelhardt and
his colleagues said, exposure to these violent video games caused the players brain to respond less to violence in the real
world. Research other than scientific studies has also come to the same conclusion that desensitization is affecting our
society.
Video
In service announcement that was posted on
YouTube, it was discussed that desensitization was
happening through media outlets including video games.
The video starts out with a scene of mass killings of
Steven Beasley II 8
innocent civilians in an airport in the extremely popular video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It states that by age 18
children will have seen over 200,000 violent acts and witnessed 18,000 murders on television. The video says that children
are becoming desensitized to violence and all of the attempts to reduce it are failing. In the end the video asks the viewer to
question what their loved ones are witnessing on television. The video backs up my point that violence in video games are
affecting people negatively, yet not everyone is convinced that this is an issue.
Video game violence is ok?
Some people argue that the effects of desensitization of violent video games can help our society in different ways.
One way that people argue is that this could help train recruits for
the Army. This could be valid for many reasons; one being that the
games could help cope with the post-traumatic stress disorder that
some war vets get diagnosed with. “reality-based video games could
help prepare recruits for the mental horrors of war, help train them
for the real thing and even help prevent cases of post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) in soldiers” (Hsu, J. 2010). Like Hsu states,
Steven Beasley II 9
this can train soldiers to be more prepared for the horrors of the war. Another way violent video games could help is that in
video games when people die all they have to do is wait and they will “re-spawn” or come back. This makes death more
unrealistic and there is a possibility that it could help people cope with the stress of losing a loved one.
More reasons Desensitization is bad
Like previously stated, violent video games are being used to train soldiers
to become less affected by the violence of the war, but is this smart? I don’t
believe this is and others feel the same. This could make soldiers make the war
seem less real. Also previously mention is the fact that the desensitization from
video games can make people less empathetic and less willing to help others. This
is bad because the general population of gamers is vast and that means that less
people in the world would be willing to help each other in dire situations. One
other issue is that violent video games may make children have trouble
recognizing video game violence with real-life violence. “Young children are
Steven Beasley II 10
more likely to confuse fantasy violence with real world violence, and without a framework for ethical decision making, they
may mimic the actions they see in violent video games” (Olson, C, 2005). Is there anything we as a society can do to
prevent desensitization?
Can we do anything?
Unfortunately there is not much that can be done to prevent any of these things from continuing to happen. In the
past laws were made to try and regulate games, but these fell through.
“On Oct. 7, 2005, California passed a law that required violent video games to include an "18" label and
criminalized the sale of these games to minors. The law was blocked by the US District Court for the Northern
District of California and was struck down in Feb. 2009 by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals citing First
Amendment protections and the inability of the state to demonstrate a link between violence in video games and real-
world violence” (ProCon.org., 2012).
One idea is to either ban or put harsh regulations on certain games that are “too” violent such as games that show mass
amounts of dismemberment. Most games that are rated for mature gamers have mass amounts of violence and stricter
regulations could help keep these games away from children. “In the present ratings system, many games rated E for
Steven Beasley II 11
“everyone” contain a surprising degree of violent actions” (Funk, 2003). Another thing that people can do is make others
aware of the true danger of the violence in the games. Hopefully we can educate parents so that violent games are not
reaching the hands of minors.
Conclusion
Video game violence has evolved to the point where it is almost as real as it is in life. It has gotten to the point where
it is affecting how people view the world and how people are affected by events in it. Often people misjudge that violence in
video games makes children to be more aggressive, but it has a more potent affect. The truth is that violence in video games
desensitize people to violence in the real world, lowering the empathy that children have for others. The military uses video
games to train their soldiers which get them used to the sight and reaction to war time violence. There is speculation that
this could help vets with post-traumatic stress because they would be less affected by the horrors of the war, but in reality
the desensitization they are receiving from the violent video games makes the war more fictitious than reality. There are few
things we can do to counteract the desensitization affect that video games have on people. The only solution that can be
wide spread would be informing parents about the violence and what they can do to inform their children. Things need to be
done now before our whole society becomes desensitized to all violence. Our world needs to change, and it needs to change
soon.
Steven Beasley II 12
References
Bartholow, B. , Sestir, M. , & Davis, E. (2005). Correlates and consequences of exposure to video game violence: Hostile personality,
empathy, and aggressive behavior. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(11), 1573-1586.
Bushman, B. , & Anderson, C. (2009). Comfortably numb: Desensitizing effects of violent media on helping others. Psychological
Science, 20(3), 273-277
Carnagey, N. , Anderson, C. , & Bushman, B. (2007). The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life
violence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43(3), 489-496.
Desensitized Media (April 20, 2011). DESENSITIZED: Media Violence and Children. Retrieved December 15, 2012, from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxyTO-Q40u4
Engelhardt, C. , Bartholow, B. , Kerr, G. , & Bushman, B. (2011). This is your brain on violent video games: Neural desensitization to
violence predicts increased aggression following violent video game exposure. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,
47(5), 1033-1036.
Ferguson, C. J. (2007). Video Games: the Latest Scapegoat for Violence. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53(42). Retrieved from
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA165323931&v=2.1&u=csumb_main&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w
Funk, Jeanne B, Debra D Buchman, Jennifer Jenks, and Heidi Bechtoldt. "Playing Violent Video Games, Desensitization, and Moral
Evaluation in Children." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24.4 (2003): 413-436.
Hsu, J. (2010, August 19). For the U.S. military, video games get serious. In Lifescience.com. Retrieved December 8, 2012, from
http://www.livescience.com/10022-military-video-games.html
Kutner, L., & Olsen, C. K. (2008). Grand Theft Childhood: the surprising truth about violent video games and what parents can do.
Olson, C., Jellinek, M., & Villani, S. (2005). Child Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. In Media Literacy for Clinicians
and Parents.
ProCon.org. (2012, December 5). Video Games ProCon.org. VideoGames.ProCon.org. Retrieved from http://videogames.procon.org/
