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Violent TV shows, video games can desensitize teens: Study
Welcome to a new segment I like to call "Gosh, really?"
According to an article in the Ottawa Citizen, watching violent TV shows or video games desensitizes teens, blunts their emotional responses to aggression and may promote aggressive behaviour, American researchers say in a new study.
Gosh, really?
From the article:
"Scientists at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders in Bethesda, Maryland, asked boys between 14 and 17 years old to rate a series of 60 clips of street brawls, stadium violence and fist fights from videos including World's Wildest Street Fights and Beatdowns.
As the clips continued, the respondents became less bothered by the violence — and data on brain activity collected from the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, which is connected to emotional responses, showed desensitization even after watching the most aggressive videos, said lead investigator Dr. Jordan Grafman.
"Continued exposure to violent videos will make an adolescent less sensitive to violence, more accepting of violence and more likely to commit aggressive acts," Grafman concluded."
Well this is certainly news to me.
First thing tomorrow, I'm marching down to EB Games, and as soon as I see some parent trying to buy an M-rated game for their kid, I'm gonna punch 'em in the goddamn face.
And then gouge out my lateral cortical thingy.
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The study was not about video games. Even children's brains can recognize computer graphics vs real-life. Nothing in the study suggests that violent video games make children less sensitive to real-life violence. Also, the brain will adapt to the environment and not necessarily the concept as a whole.
Penn and Teller demonstrated this somewhat by having a 12-year old XBox/CoD addict shoot a real gun. The child fired off one shot and burst into tears and could not be persuaded to shoot a second time.
The brain is very efficient at linking input with environment. Take the child out of the environment and the sensitivity to violence is right back up to peak levels.
Events such as Columbine are an aberration in my mind, and not a rule.
Are you willing to try the gun test with your girls?
But I do agree with you on the last point. Games alone do not cause shooting sprees.
Or are you saying that girls would be more prone to de-sensitizing ?
The Penn and Teller experiment was with a boy.
As for guns and girls, I am actually looking into having my oldest daughter shoot a rifle at a shooting range. A handgun would be too much to start with.
Don't forget to pick up condoms on the way.
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