Researched Response Assignment -- Original

Zakary Hansen

Violence today seems to be reaching a unique maximum. Whats to blame for that? Well, I believe it could directly be tied to the modern-day television and video games provided to broad audiences. More than ever, children that have not yet reached the appropriate level of maturity are given extremely graphic video games and are allowed to watch raunchy television shows on a daily basis. What sort of future can we expect by desensitizing our youth? After prolonged exposure to most of anything, e.g. pain smell, etc., the brain will attempt to tune those out. Is it not understandable for the brain to do the same to the violence seen in video games and on television? Personally, I used to cringe at the sight of blood and gore in video games, but now Im actually looking for a good gore game. Ive been playing violent video games since I was ten, so Ive had quite a bit of exposure to it. However, my violent video game was Tekken 3, which, when compared to modern day games such as Gears of War, its one of the more lightweight violent video games. Children of surprisingly young ages have been given games such as Gears of War, introducing them not only to the extreme violence of the game, but the inappropriate attitudes of the older players online.

In the article Chronic Violent Video Game Exposure and Desensitization to Violence, studies were done showing the effects of prolonged exposure to violent visuals. While exposure to violent images actually lowered their aggression quite fast, violent video game exposure drastically increased the aggression in the subjects. Within as little as fifty minutes, the aggression of the subjects triples. With the time a lot of children put into video games, it definitely wouldnt take too long significantly desensitize them and turn them into not-so model citizens.

Ive witnessed the aggression caused from video games firsthand. Though I find it amusing to have a ten year-old rant and rave because he lost, it raises questions. If said child got this upset over losing a video game match, whos to say he wont get equally mad for, say, a sibling calling them names? A single child raised like this could be a problem; raising the majority of this world this way is simply unacceptable.

Within Violent Video Game Exposure and Aggression, the author wrote, The content of video games has drastically changed from the decade dominated by Atari. Recent content analyses of video games show that as many as 89% of games contain some violent content, and about 50% of the games include serious violent actions toward other game characters. In addition, many children prefer to play violent games. Even older surveys of school children (4th through 8th grade) showed that more than 50% preferred games dominated with themes of human violence or fantasy violence. (N. L. CARNAGEY, C. A. ANDERSON, page 3)

Researched Response Assignment -- Original

Zakary Hansen

This article shows evidence that not only are kids introduced to the violence, but theyre actually preferring it. Not that I can blame them; in my personal experience, games with little to no violence often dont have a hook to keep you playing. This, of course, is just opinion on the matter. However, its gotten to a point where I honestly cant imagine a game that I would continuously desire to play without it involving any sort of violenceand Im schooling to become a game designer; Ive put a lot of thought into this.

The article The Effect of Video Game Violence on Physiological Desensitization to Real-Life Violence, the authors write, The results *of the studies+ demonstrate that playing a violent video game, even for just 20 min, can cause people to become less psychologically aroused by real violence. Participants randomly assigned to play a violent video game had relatively lower [heart rate] and [galvanic skin response] while watching actual footage of people being beaten, stabbed, and shot than those randomly assigned to play a nonviolent video game. (Nicholas L. Carnagey, Craig A. Anderson, Brad J. Bushman; page 6)

This article points out the very little amount of time it takes for someone to become desensitized to real-life violence. In just twenty minutes, much of the group assigned to play violent video games were less affected by the real-life violence shown to them. And even worse, when playing video games, twenty minutes often flies by quite fast. Ive noticed looking at the clock, playing a bit, and looking back to the clock, what feels like ten minutes was over half an hour.

Correlates and Consequences of Exposure to Video Game Violence: Hostile Personality, Empathy, and Aggressive Behavior did a study on a fairly large group of people. They randomly placed people in rooms, telling them theyd be fighting each other when theyd actually be fighting the AI of the game. They recorded the before and after suspicion levels. The end results had a significant increase in suspicion as well as aggression.

The results done in those studies could mean either the AI in the game doesnt play as much as a human as the game makers may have hoped, or the violence in the game is almost making the people involved in the test a little paranoidnot that paranoid is exactly the right word, for they were in fact being tricked, but with little suspicion recorded beforehand, it does raise a few question as to why they were suspicious afterwards.

These articles are only four of the many Ive come across showing prime examples of desensitization from violent video games. Not only are people becoming desensitized, but its happening much faster than I had ever thought. In as little as twenty minutes, people were already

Researched Response Assignment -- Original

Zakary Hansen

showing less sings of sensitivity to violent real-life content. Not only that, but people are becoming paranoid and aggressive. Studies have shown aggression levels raise approximately three times their start points in just under one hour of playing a violent video game. The only hope is that the aggression levels remain lowered while not playing, but if it raises three times over something as ultimately meaningless as a video game, whos to say it wont raise easily elsewhere? I highly doubt video game companies will be censoring their games coming out, so I guess all there is to do is hope for the best.

Works Cited

Tekken 3. Namco. 1998. Video game.

Gears of War. Epic Games. 2006. Video game.

Bartholow, Bruce D., Brad J. Bushman, and Marc A. Sestir. "Chronic violent video game exposure and desensitization to violence: Behavioral and event-related brain potential data." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 42.4 (2006): 532-539.

Carnagey, N. L., and C. A. Anderson. "Violent video game exposure and aggression." Minerva Psichiatrica 45.1 (2004): 1-18.

Carnagey, Nicholas L., Craig A. Anderson, and Brad J. Bushman. "The effect of video game violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence."Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 43.3 (2007): 489-496.

Bartholow, Bruce D., Marc A. Sestir, and Edward B. Davis. "Correlates and consequences of exposure to video game violence: Hostile personality, empathy, and aggressive behavior." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin31.11 (2005): 1573-1586.

Researched Response Assignment -- Original

Zakary Hansen