[user104658]

Originally Posted by Christmas treeza

Repeated Play of Violent Video Games Creates Emotional Desensitization

In April 2016, "Repeated Play Reduces Video Games’ Ability to Elicit Guilt: Evidence from a Longitudinal Experiment," was published in the journal Media Psychology. This study was conducted by Andrew Grizzard of University of Buffalo along with co-authors Ron Tamborini and John L. Sherry of Michigan State University, and René Weber of the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog...esensitization

The findings provide the first experimental evidence that repeatedly playing the same violent game reduces emotional responses -- like guilt -- not only to the original game, but to other violent video games as well.

Yet why this is happening remains a mystery, according to Matthew Grizzard, assistant professor of communication and principal investigator of the study published in current issue of the journal Media Psychology, with co-authors Ron Tamborini and John L. Sherry of Michigan State University and René Weber of the University of California Santa Barbara.

"What's underlying this finding?" asks Grizzard. "Why do games lose their ability to elicit guilt, and why does this seemingly generalize to other, similar games?"

Grizzard, an expert in the psychological effects of media entertainment, has previously studied the ability of violent video games to elicit guilt. The current study builds upon that work.


https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0408163742.htm

This study is utterly meaningless though; it says absolutely nothing at all about whether or not there is any impact on the experience of guilt / empathy in real life scenarios. Why would one feel guilt when committing an immoral or criminal act in a game? There is no real victim, no one is being harmed, it's a piece of code. Just like most people don't leave the cinema with trauma after seeing a "Scream" movie. I'm pretty sure they would be scarred for life if they walked into a cinema and someone was dragged to the front and decapitated with a knife. To use a more realistic example; no one walked out of "Black Hawk Down" with PTSD... because it isn't real and human beings are pretty good at knowing the difference.

In theory; the more or the longer you play video games, the more attuned you become to this fact? You know that no one is really hurt or dying, you know that if you reload a save that guy you just saw being killed is magically "alive" again, therefore, why WOULD anyone feel genuine guilt over video game actions? I'd be more worried if people DID feel guilty because that, to me, would suggest a troublesome disconnection from reality.

Case in point: I could drive around GTA running people down all day and I'd be nothing more than bored. Yet a couple of years ago, I *thought* I saw a cat being hit by a car (it turned out to be fine) and yet I swear the shock / upset of it messed me up for over a week.

Until someone does a study of gaming that shows playing games with criminal / violent content decreases sensitivity and guilt related to REAL WORLD violence and criminal activity... I'd take this with a massive pinch of salt. As things stand now, I think The News and modern politics does a much better job of desensitizing people.