Carnagey, N. L. , Anderson C. A. & Bushman B. J. (2007). The effect of video game violence on psychological desensitization to real life violence. Jou

Carnagey, N. L. , Anderson C. A. & Bushman B. J. (2007). The effect of video game violence on psychological desensitization to real life violence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 489-496.

Carnagey et al. argue that witnessing violent acts in video games desensitizes children to depictions of real life violence. In other words, individuals who play violent games will see a “reduction in emotion-related psychological reactivity to real violence” (p. 490). Carnagey et al. note that much of the current research on desensitization analyzes the casual relationship between media violence and a person’s desensitization to further depictions of media violence. So, a child that watches several slasher films will become accustomed to the violence portrayed in the movie after a given period and will not have an elevated heart rate when watching future scenes of a similar nature. Carnagey et al., perceiving flaws in this methodology, aim to analyze the relationship between violent games and the player’s desensitization to real life violence. The study measured the heart rate and galvanic skin response (GSR) of a sample of 257 college students in order to delineate the effects of media violence on the students’ desensitization to depictions of true violent acts. Carnagey et al. had the students play several violent games and subsequently watch videos depicting true accounts of shootings, brawls, riots, and stabbings. The study concludes that playing violent games desensitizes people to real life violence and likely leads to an unsympathetic view towards the victims of violence.

While the research elucidates the desensitizing effects of media violence on people, the study seemingly succumbs to what it desires to avoid. By showing depictions of real life violence in video format, the study reduces the verisimilitude of the horrific acts being depicted. In other words, because the students watched graphic “real life” violence on a television screen it is likely that the students associated the acts with other forms of media violence. Thus, this study cannot accurately measure how the same students would react to an actual stabbing if it took place in front of them. However, since this is the closest methodology an IRB would allow, the study does a great job of proving its point granted the projects’ limitations.