...participants played one of eight randomly assigned violent or non-violent video games for 20 minutes. The four violent video games were Carmageddon, Duke Nukem, Mortal Kombat or Future Cop; the non-violent games were Glider Pro, 3D Pinball, 3D Munch Man and Tetra Madness.
After playing a video game, a second set of five-minute heart rate and skin response measurements were taken. Participants were then asked to watch a 10-minute videotape* of actual violent episodes taken from TV programs and commercially-released films in the following four contexts: courtroom outbursts, police confrontations, shootings and prison fights. Heart rate and skin response were monitored throughout the viewing.
The physical differences
When viewing real violence, participants who had played a violent video game experienced skin response measurements significantly lower than those who had played a non-violent video game. The participants in the violent video game group also had lower heart rates while viewing the real-life violence compared to the nonviolent video game group.
"The results demonstrate that playing violent video games, even for just 20 minutes, can cause people to become less physiologically aroused by real violence,"
The researchers' ...conclude that the existing video game rating system, the content of much entertainment media, and the marketing of those media combine to produce "a powerful desensitization intervention on a global level."
press release w/link to their paper "The Effects of Video Game Violence on Physiological Desensitization to Real-Life Violence,"
~*Have these researchers identified the ways viewing videotaped violence differs from experiencing real (in your face) violence? Are they saying that gamers desensitized by video-violence would react differently to actual violence than gamers who play non-violent games?
(I wonder if viewing video-taped real violence desensitizes people to video game violence?)
Is the US Military funding this research? Will x amount of hours of violent video-gaming become part of basic military training; as an inoculation against PTSD?
If so, this is a god-send for future soldiers, for anyone in occupations (e.g. police, emergency) in which experiencing or witnessing the effects of violence is part of the job. Why suffer when you can desensitize yourself (just 20 minutes a day!) and have fun doing it?