Researched Response Assignment -- Reworked

Zakary Hansen

Violence today seems to be reaching a unique maximum. I feel it can be directly tied to the violence tied to modern day television and video games. The content today continues to get more and more inappropriate as people are desensitized. On top of that, children that have not reached an appropriate level of maturity are allowed access to raunchy television shows and extremely violent video games on a daily basis. Studies have been done showing that exposure to violent video games decreases sensitivity towards real-life violent graphic content.

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.

Within Violent Video Game Exposure and Aggression, the author wrote, The content of videogames 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)

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.

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

Researched Response Assignment -- Reworked

Zakary Hansen

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 multiple times. When playing games like Soulcalibur V, players of all ages get extremely upset over something as simple as taking a loss. Though I find it amusing to have a ten year-old rant and rave because he lost, his anger 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.

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.

Another article, Violent Video Game Effects on Aggression, Empathy, and Prosocial Behavior in Eastern and Western Countries: A Meta-Analytic Review, states that they too did some studies. They stated However, it is important to note that there were no longitudinal studies on participants older than 16. The longitudinal studies were long-term based studies. The results showed that the aggression arose in a predictable manner in the longitudinal study group. Most notably, in longitudinal studies even when sex and Time 1 aggressive behavior were controlled, amount of violent video game play at Time 1 significantly predicted an increase in aggressive behavior at Time 2. This article states that the aggression rises in a predictable manner. It also stated that the results done on different genders didnt differ much. There was no evidence that the VGV [or video game violence] effect on aggressive behavior differed for males and females. This shows that either gender is just as susceptible to the effects of video game violence.

Ive used the articles mentioned prior to this point have focused mainly on aggression and violence spawned from video game influence. Ill now mention a few articles that show studies done recording the desensitization caused from the graphic violence within video games.

Researched Response Assignment -- Reworked

Zakary Hansen

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 videogame 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.

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 showing less signs 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 world could greatly sufferif it hasnt alreadyfrom the negative effects caused by violence in modern forms of media.

Researched Response Assignment -- Reworked

Zakary Hansen

Works Cited

Tekken 3. Namco. 1998. Video game.

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

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

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.

Soulcalibur V. Bandai Namco. 2012. Video Game..

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..

Anderson, Craig A., et al. "Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in eastern and western countries: a meta-analytic review." Psychological bulletin 136.2 (2010): 151.

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.