Your Brain On Violent Video Games

In the most recent version of the Grand Theft Auto video game series players have the capability to kill police using a menagerie of weapons, pay for the services of prostitutes, as well as ingest large quantities of drugs and alcohol. Although the graphic nature of this game may seem like an exception, a multitude of games available on the market today feature game-play that condones explicit violence. As all forms of media, especially video games, are becoming more violent, graphic, and more realistic, concerns are growing about the potential side effects of repeated exposure to violent media. One possible consequence of chronic exposure to violence in the media is increased desensitization to violence and violent images. Scientists have speculated that this desensitization to violence may lead to an increase in aggression, but it was not until a recent study that this connection was actually made to be legitimate. In an experiment conducted by university researchers, evidence was found demonstrating a link between acute desensitization due to violent media exposure and increased aggression.

The directors of the experiment began by selecting sixty-four undergraduates out of a pool of two thousand, based on what types of games the students played and how often during the week they played them. Next participants were randomly assigned to play either a violent or non-violent video game. The violent games included Call of Duty, Hitman and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The non violent games included Jak and Daxter, MVP Baseball 2004, and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. After playing their games participants were then shown a series of neutral or violent images and were told by experimenters to think about their reactions to the images. This stage of the experiment was used primarily to determine whether individual participants experienced some desensitization to violent images after exposure to violent video games.

Following the picture viewing, participants completed what they believed to be a competitive reaction time task. Participants were told that they and an “opponent” would have to press a button as fast as possible on each of twenty-five trials, and that whoever was slower would receive a blast of white noise through headphones. However, there really were no opponents opposite of the participants; all actions were controlled by a computer. Prior to each trial the participants set the noise level of their “opponent”, varying from 60DB to 105 DB. Participants could also determine how long their “opponents” could suffer by determining the duration of the noise blast from 0s to 2.5s. Essentially participants were given a pseudo-weapon by which they could inflict damage onto their “opponent”. This gave the experimenters a reliable and valid measure for aggression. In order to receive reliable data from the participants, the noise level and duration that the participants experienced was made constant.

As the scientists had predicted those individuals who played a violent video game showed higher levels of aggression than those who played a non-violent game. The effect was the same regardless of previous exposure to violent video games. However, when reviewing the desensitizing affects that occurred throughout the experiment, those individuals who had little exposure to violent video games experienced greater desensitization than those who had greater exposure to violent games. The experimenters could not come to an official conclusion as to why this occurred but they established a few hypotheses.

Prior to this experiment many scientists have suggested that desensitization to violence overtime or in the short-term can lead to changes in aggression. However, this study is the first to provide experimental evidence of this connection between desensitization due to violent media exposure and increases in aggression.

Works Cited:

Engelhardt, Christopher R; Bartholow Bruce; Kerr, Geoffery; Bushman, Brad. “This is your Brain on Violent Video Games.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology Vol. 47 Issue 5: pages1033-1036.