Legal Niches

Study: Violent Games Do Not Desensitize Players to Violence

By james_fudge

According to researchers at Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada), violent video games do not desensitize players to violennt imagery. The study was lead by Holly Bowen (a PhD candidate in psychology) and co-authored by psychology professor Julia Spaniol. Researchers examined the impact of chronic exposure to violent video games on emotional memory and responses to negative stimuli.

"Emotional long-term memory helps us avoid negative situations," Bowen said. "This has significant implications for public health. For example, if you remember the negative experience of being involved in a bar fight, you will avoid future situations that may lead to an altercation."

The study involved 122 undergraduate students (male and female) who had some experience with video games in the last six months (45 participants) and those who had no prior video game "exposure" (77 students). Read More

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Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on February 15, 2011 (boomark / email).