Violent video games reduce brain response to violence and increase aggressive behavior

May 25, 2011 in Psychology & Psychiatry

Scientists have known for years that playing violent video games causes players to become more aggressive. The findings of a new University of Missouri (MU) study provide one explanation for why this occurs: the brains of violent video game players become less responsive to violence, and this diminished brain response predicts an increase in aggression.

"Many researchers have believed that becoming desensitized to violence leads to increased human aggression. Until our study, however, this causal association had never been demonstrated experimentally," said Bruce Bartholow, associate professor of psychology in the MU College of Arts and Science.

During the study, 70 young adult participants were randomly assigned to play either a nonviolent or a for 25 minutes. Immediately afterwards, the researchers measured brain responses as participants viewed a series of neutral photos, such as a man on a bike, and violent photos, such as a man holding a gun in another man's mouth. Finally, participants competed against an opponent in a task that allowed them to give their opponent a controllable blast of loud noise. The level of noise blast the participants set for their opponent was the measure of aggression.

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Scientists have known for years that playing violent video games causes players to become more aggressive. The findings of a new University of Missouri study provide one explanation for why this occurs: the brains of violent video game players become less responsive to violence, and this diminished brain response predicts an increase in aggression. Credit: MU News Bureau

The researchers found that participants who played one of several popular , such as "," "Hitman," "Killzone" and "," set louder noise blasts for their opponents during the competitive task – that is, they were more aggressive – than participants who played a nonviolent game. In addition, for participants that had not played many before completing the study, playing a violent game in the lab caused a reduced to the photos of violence – an indicator of desensitization. Moreover, this reduced brain response predicted participants' aggression levels: the smaller the brain response to violent photos, the more aggressive participants were.

Participants who had already spent a lot of time playing violent video games before the study showed small brain response to the violent photos, regardless of which type of game they played in the lab.

"The fact that exposure did not affect the brain activity of participants who already had been highly exposed to violent games is interesting and suggests a number of possibilities," Bartholow said. "It could be that those individuals are already so desensitized to violence from habitually playing violent video games that an additional exposure in the lab has very little effect on their brain responses. There also could be an unmeasured factor that causes both a preference for violent video games and a smaller brain response to violence. In either case, there are additional measures to consider."

Bartholow said that future research should focus on ways to moderate media violence effects, especially among individuals who are habitually exposed. He cites surveys that indicate that the average elementary school child spends more than 40 hours a week playing video games – more than any other activity besides sleeping. As young children spend more time with video games than any other forms of media, the researchers say children could become accustomed to violent behavior as their brains are forming.

"More than any other media, these video games encourage active participation in violence," said Bartholow. "From a psychological perspective, video games are excellent teaching tools because they reward players for engaging in certain types of behavior. Unfortunately, in many popular video games, the behavior is ."

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RobertKarlStonjek
May 26, 2011

Rank: 4.7 / 5 (3)
Note that they had to run tests immediately after game play in order to discern any difference. Actual predisposition toward aggressive behaviour does not increase due to violent game play although more violent individuals may be attracted to such games (get the cause and effect right!!)

Another myth involves pornography ~ surveys consistently find that sexual offences FALL after the legalisation of pornography...
Sinister1811
May 26, 2011

Rank: 4.7 / 5 (3)
What nonsense this is. There's an obvious difference between playing a video game, and committing a violent offense in the real world.
robtheviking
May 27, 2011

Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
this is B.S., it only seems natural to be desensitized only mere moments after playing the game. A much better test would be if they asked them the next _day_ if they were still desensitized. This really doesn't have any implication in real life but you just know the news media will latch on to this and write up sensational headlines. That sounds like this study was made with the pre-conceived notion without bother testing to see how long it takes for the de-sensitization to fade over time, if at all.
xstos
Jun 01, 2011

Rank: not rated yet
all these games do is exacerbate pent up frustration kids who need to vent out their excess agitation in the form of physical exercise. they're sitting at the TV playing games instead of blowing off steam. where are their parents to kick their asses outside? probably letting the TV be the parent instead of raising their delinquent children properly.
Rank 3.5 /5 (2 votes)
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