Video Games Desensitize Children

I've always suspected that violent video games were unhealthy to the mental health and well-being
of children playing them.
New research in the field of video games investigated how violent games affect the emotional
behavior of children and how it impacts their response to life events. Playing video games that are
violent, for as little as 20 minutes, promotes desensitization to real world violence, on a physiologic
level.
"We found that the subjects who played violent video games for 20 minutes had lower physiologic
responses when they watched videos of real-life violence," said Nicholas Carnagey, who conducted
the research while a psychology instructor at Iowa State University in Ames.
The study determined that over exposure to violence tended to cause the children to become numb
and insensitive to acts of violence. Iowa State University researchers warned that it is not important
the amount of time the child spends playing the violent games.
He explained that these lowered physical responses means the child felt less emotional upset when
viewing real-life brutality.
Earlier studies found a relationship between exposure to violent video games and desensitization to
real violence. But Carnagey's team says theirs is the first to expose subjects to video games and then
measured their body's response and reactions to real-life violence through heart rate and galvanic
skin changes, which measures perspiration.
As heart rate and perspiration increase, so does emotional arousal, said Carnagey, currently a
professor at Wake Forest University.
Released in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the study involved 257 college students
(133 women, 124 men and 133) that were evaluated prior to and after playing either non-violent or
violent video games for 20 minutes. The violent games included Mortal Kombat, Future Cop,
Carmageddon, and Duke Nukem. The non-violent games selection of games included 3D Pinball, 3D
Munch Man, Glider Plus and Tetra Madness.
The participants had similar heart rates and other signs of arousal before exposure to real-life
violence, which included videotaped shootings, prison fights and police confrontations. The people
who played violent video games for 20 minutes had lower galvanic skin responses (lower
perspiration) and heart rates while watching the real-life footage. "A lot of other studies on exposure
to violent video games indicated that we would find this [desensitization], but it surprised us that
only 20 minutes of exposure was enough to show this effect," Carnagey said.
"It appears that individuals who play violent video gamesget used to all the violence and eventually
become physiologically numb to it. The modern entertainment media landscape could accurately be
described as an effective systematic violence desensitization tool.
"The only time we saw physiologic differences among participants was while they were watching
real-life violence." Their findings, "demonstrate that violent video game exposure can cause
desensitization to real-life violence. Children receive high doses of media violence. It is initially

packaged in ways that are not too threatening, with cute cartoon-like characters. However, older
children consume increasingly threatening and realistic violence, but the increases are gradual and
always in a way that is fun."
Translated to the real world, these signs of lower emotional upset may mean a person is more
desensitized to violence. He or she may also be less able to identify violence and less likely to help
victims of violence, Carnagey explained.
These findings raise a red flag for parents.
Even though the study targeted college students, "there's no doubt that these results apply to
younger children, and there's every reason to be concerned that the effects be may even greater in
those under the age of 7 because these children don't distinguish very well between fantasy and
reality," said pediatrician Dimitri A. Christakis, director of the Child Health Institute at the
University of Washington, Seattle, and author of the book The Elephant in the Living Room: Make TV
Work for Your Kids.
The concern and caution for parents is real, Christakis said. "Children are much more media-savvy
at a much younger age than their parents were," he noted. Many parents believe that violent games
won't make their children more violent, but they might not be witnessing any increase in aggressive
behaviors first-hand, he noted. The negative effects of video game exposure often infiltrate children's
real-life games, Christakis said. "This increasing violence is mutually enhancing in a negative way,"
he warned, because "it reinforces violence in their own lives."
Much of the media children watch is laden with violence, Carnagey added. In G-rated movies and
games, violence is often packaged in a "cute and friendly manner," the researcher noted.
And "as children grow older, they're exposed to ever more realistic and gory scenes," he said.
"Parents might say, 'My child is not ready to see that yet,' but what does that comment mean? When
would children be ready to see someone beheaded?"
This unintended desensitization from exposure to very violent media can have a real impact on
children's development, according to the researchers.
"In real life, were not talking about a simple 20-minute exposure, were talking about exposure that's
hours on end, day after day," Carnagey said. "Parents should be aware and active in their child's
exposure to media. They should really think about what messages they're exposing their children
to."
The study also raises very re important questions regarding additional research, including whether
the impact of short-term exposure to violent games lingers, and what the additive effect might be of
playing violent video games over days, weeks, and years.