Another Study Showing The Impact Of Violent Media On The Brain
from the been-there,-done-that? dept
Almost exactly a year ago, we wrote about some new research showing how violent video games impacted the brains of children as monitored using fMRI equipment. The end result was basically that there was an effect -- but it was basically what you'd expect. Violence made stimulated parts of the brain corresponding to being "emotional," which is what anyone would expect. Slashdot is now reporting on a similar study that really doesn't seem all that different (even if the press release about it claims that there hasn't been such evidence "until now"). Basically, the finding shows that when viewing violent media, the part of the brain that suppresses inappropriate aggression is less active. Again, though, that seems perfectly reasonable. If you're witnessing violence, it seems perfectly natural that your brain would prepare you to be ready for violence yourself if needed. What it doesn't show is that it actually does make you more violent. Unlike some research, this seems like perfectly good research and the researchers don't seem to be pretending it says more than it actually does. However, for those looking to support the idea that violent video games makes people violent, they won't find it here (unless they extrapolate out well beyond what the study covers).Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: fmri, research, violent video games
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They will
Knowing the media, they probably will.
Incidently Mike, do you ever sleep?
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And there was no violence before TV?
We are such a violent society that it's beyond scary. But there will be those, as the writer of the above segment, who will try to convince themselves, and everyone else, that isn't so.
The human animal has the same traits that it always has. Fortunately, society has evolved and dampened that to some effect with homes, cars, fast food, and so forth. However, the nature of the beast is not gone; merely dormant.
But that my kids start jumping all over the room when there's a kung-fu flick on TV does not translate into them roving the streets searching for prey and vandalism.
Doctors used to prescribe smoking. They're not perfect. That's why it's called practice, and they are ever searching for knowledge and understanding. I'll take that over someone hiding under the sheets quoting Shakespeare (sort of) any day.
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That's a preparation. Your brain is letting your body know to get ready, a fight is imminent. Same thing happens if a fight breaks out in front of you or if you watch a war movie.
Which brings me to a question. In the U.S. the Department of Justice does a sort of census on violence. If violent media (e.g. movies, TV, video games) is making children more violent how is it that violent crimes among juveniles is at a 40 year low, and has been since 2000?
I thought there was a surge of youth violence, Senator Hillary Clinton even told me so. Surely people aren't lying to me for their own profit! Why you'd think that would be illegal or something . . .
I don't doubt the D.O.J.'s ability to be somewhat accurate in such cases, and in this case I believe it since from older co-workers it seems kids got into a lot more physical fights. I remember a conversation I overheard between classmates when I was 15 and a "fight" broke out in the lunchroom. I believe the words were: "Man, my Da would laugh at me if I told him that that was a fight. He only threw one punch before it was over."
Oh, kids are superviolent alright. It has NOTHING to do with other sources, its just the less-than-30-years-old violent video game.
**Disclaimer: Most of that was sarcasm. People are too bloody dense nowadays to understand it so I suggest you get a dictionary.**
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Careful...
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Here we go again...
Ultimately this debate reaches back to Aristotle and Plato, and somehow I doubt even MRI scans will be able to settle it one way or the other.
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We're not nearly as violent as we used to be. Violent crime has gone down as violent video games have become popular. It only seems like society is incredibly violent because as population grows, there *is* more crime in total, but not on average.
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Violence hasn't become more prevalent. It's become known and available to the public because it's more wide spread due to media displaying it (bad news). Good news doesn't get ratings, bad news does.
Every house hold in the world has a TV now. We're not just sittin' in front of our Victrola listening to the latest "Whispering Hope" by olive Kline-Elsie Baker record.
Society has become inundated with violence around them. I've been playing video games and watching violent movies since I was 9 years old. Now 24 years later, I still do all those things and I haven't killed anyone, shot anyone, raped my pet ferret or beat my wife.
Keep in mind that those folks who run into schools and shoot people are unstable to begin with. Those folks that believe videogames and media are the cause of violence are shirking responsibility onto a third party. It's the parents, teachers, and to some degree the environment the kids grow up in that cause of "unstable" individuals.
Just because I play Manhunt 2 doesn't mean I'm going to start driving around whackin' people. I hope to think that I have enough reasoning and judgement capability to not do that. Hell, even when I've been drunk I haven't gotten in a fight yet.
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Ask the
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You know - maybe if Charles Mansion, Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, and others wouldn't have played all those violent video games, they wouldn't have went on murderous sprees.
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Grand Theft Auto made me less violent
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Does anyone wonder?
If there was even a slight indication that violent media was bad for children, the study would never have been done.
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The idea that we do emulate what we're shown as acceptable behavior has a point - if we show our good guys (our Jack Bauers or the like) resorting to violent, evil methods on a regular basis... those methods may become more acceptable in society. However, here - as in all things - context is key. When we watch / play / involve ourselves in violent media - a war game or the like - they come with context. Jack's violent because the world is at stake, this game is violent cause it's set during a war, that game because you're role playing a criminal. Context is important.
I think (not backed up by any statistics) that many gamers would be more comfortable using a weapon in real life than an average person would be. They have had enough virtual experience wielding weapons (guns or whatever) that doing so in real life might be easier to adjust to. However - they've wielded weapons against zombies, demons, enemy agents, or while being / role playing a criminal (assassin or just plain thug) - so choosing to wield a weapon in real life with out that context would not be something they'd be comfortable with. They've not learned that it's ok to hurt innocents - in fact most media punishes for that kind of behavior, either by showing in the movie that the bad guy loses in the end, or in a game environment by deduction of points / lives / whatever.
There's an interesting thought though, if it's not the violence we should be worried about so much as that we've just changed the way (and consequences) we're teaching are involved with a criminal lifestyle. Violence on tv isn't the problem - but making heroes out of criminals might be. In the 50's movies had a "rule" that you didn't show criminals benefiting from their crimes (by the end it had to go wrong for the criminal, they never got to keep the money and they usually died - even the criminal's you were rooting for like the original Ocean's Eleven or the like) Today's films (and games) show criminals succeed or win on a semi-regular basis. We're, somewhat, making a criminal lifestyle look like a viable alternative. Sometimes even something to aspire to or look up to.
Hitman, GTA, Sopranos, Ocean's whatever, etc - they don't always paint a rosy picture - but they certainly don't teach the moralty play values of "every wrong deed goes punished" that we used to... The new media is truer to life (maybe), and possibly even in some lights educational (life *isn't* a morality play and believing it is can be problematic) ... but are we encouraging crime as an option when children dream of their futures? I want to be an astronaut! I want to be a teacher! I want to be mafia boss! I want to be an assassin! =)
It's a thought. Maybe we're training our children to be more comfortable with violence - exposure and repetition makes it less shocking and easier to deal with - but does that make them want to be *bad*, violent or against society? Not unless we teach them that as well...
Just thinking out loud,
Gk
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Chickens
If you have then you know what it's like. If you haven't then go to the grovery store, buy one, and try it. Cutting through flesh and tendons, peeling back the skin, snapping the backbone - it's gory, disgusting, and gross - at least the first time. It gets easier though and less disgusting, until you don't give it a second thought. We become acclimated to the grossness of butchering the chicken.
It's the same with everything that makes us uncomfortable. The more we experience it, the more we are around it, the more acclimated we become and the easier it gets.
Violent media doesn't make a person violent, but violent media does lessen our natural retraints against such acts. We grow accustomed to, less or even undisturbed by, violent imagery, acts, and violence by ourselves.
If you want to be a fool and claim there's NO connection between violent media and violence then go butcher a few chickens. See how you feel the first time and the last. It's the same effect. Or maybe go jump off a bridge, bungee of course, and notice how what scared you to death the first time quickly becomes an exhilirating high that you seek out. Same effect, just a different degree of experience.
Watching or participating in any violence, even fake violence, encourages violence by lessening our nervousness and fears of it. Deny it and you are an idiot or a fool. What you need to be doing is recognizing how it affects us and acting to counter it.
Yes, butchering a chicken provides a similar effect. It acclimates one to the blood and guts and gore one would experience inflicting violence on another creature or human. Does it make you want to kill? Not unless you're a sick puppy already. Does it make it easier to inflict wounds on another? Absolutely, because you've lost your aversion to gore.
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There is a clear causal relationship between violent media and actual violent capability going back to the civil war.
That doesn't mean that video games will make you a violent person, but there's a clear difference between what you're capable of with no influence vs. what you can actually do if given some realistic influence.
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BS
what ever happened to commonsense??
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People are stupid
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More proof
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Cool
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