Exceeded exposure to violent
content leads to desensitization. “In a 2004 study of 150 fourth and fifth
graders by Professor Jeanne Funk, violent video games were the only type of
media associated with lower empathy” (ProCon) Empathy, the ability to
understand and enter into another's feelings, plays an important role in the
process of moral evaluation and is believed to linked to aggressive behavior.
As the level of empathy decreases the player loses the feeling of guilt
accompanied to harming the victim. When the player stops receiving this
feeling, their virtual pastime becomes an option for reality; if the child is
getting rewarded for inflicting pain in the game they might try to do it in
real life. “A 1998 study found that 21% of games sampled involved violence
against women” (Sex Roles) Exposure
to sexual violence in video games is linked to increasing violence towards
women and attitudes about rape that promote the idea that women incite men to
rape or that women secretly desire rape. Video games often reward players for
simulating violence, and thus enhance the learning of violent behaviors.
Studies suggest that when violence is rewarded in video games, players exhibit
increased aggressive behavior compared to players of video games where violence
is punished (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology). Repetition of
violent acts leads to increased tolerance of violence.
A study was published in the Social
Psychological and Personality Science journal shows that suggests that
teenagers who play violent video games are more likely to cheat, experience
increased aggression and have reduced self-control. A group of teenagers were
asked to play an assortment of games, some of which were violent and contained
mature content. In the first experiment, the players were offered chocolate in
a bowl and told to eat freely as they played, but were advised that eating too
much sugar in a short amount was not healthy. The results showed that those who
played violent videogames ate three times as much chocolate. The teenagers were
then asked to solve a 10 question logic test. For each question they got right,
they were rewarded with one raffle ticket that they could exchange for prizes.
The participants were asked to take the correct amount of raffle tickets from
an envelope. However, the researchers knew how many tickets were in each
envelope so they would know if any of the participants had taken more tickets
than they had earned. Results from this experiment revealed that the teenagers
who played violent video games cheated more than eight times more, compared to
those who played non-violent video games. The next test allowed the player who
won to "blast" the losing player with a loud sound through
headphones. Teenagers who played the violent video games blasted the unseen
partners with louder and longer noises, compared with those who played the
non-violent games (MediLexicon). These results help to prove that violent video
games have a negative effect on players.
