Bruce D. Bartholow, Brad J. Bushman, & Marc A. Sestir, M. A.

2006

Chronic Violent Video Game Exposure and Desensitization to Violence:

Behavioral and Event-Related Potential Data

Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

Volume 42

Pages 532-539.

Psychology

Date: Dec 3, 2009
Summary

The prevalent theory regarding violence making people more aggressive and likely to be violent was tested in an

experiment conducted by Bruce D. Bartholow, Brad J. Bushman and Marc A. Sestir in the Department of

Psychology, University of Missouri-Columbia, USA. The theory regarding playing violent video games and that

seeing violent acts desensitizes them and makes them aggressive and likely to commit violent acts against others.

Many previous studies have seemingly confirmed this to be true. This study was set up using voluntary male

students who were recruited by offering them college credits for participating. Their reaction to seeing violent

pictures was measured by the amplitude of P300 that was the measure of reaction in the brain in response to violent

scenes as measured in reference to a certain specific amplitude of brain waves as evidenced by (ERP or

event-related potential). It was thought that the results would show higher measurements when exposed to aversive

pictures. They included a level of horrific scenes such as the rotting corpse of a dog.


It was expected that the subjects who were exposed to more violent scenes would be desensitized and have a less

severe reaction to future violent pictures. The scientists theorized that those subjects who played more violent

video games would be desensitized by media violence. This would be proven if the subjects exposed to more

violent video games would be more aggressive towards others than the group who were not exposed to violent

video games. This would be evidenced by the violent exposure group being more aggressive than the control group

who were less desensitized. This would be proved by measuring voltage amplitude (P300 was the norm) and an

electroencephalogram (EEG) was the method used to evaluate the information processing brain activity.


The study was set up using 39 male students with similar characteristics. One group was exposed to the violent

video games and the control group was not. It was expected that those in the group playing more violent video

games would be more aggressive as a result. The level of their aggression would be indicated by how stongly they

inflicted a loud noise to the other students working on a task with them. The task was fabricated to hide the real

purpose of what the scientists were assessing. I would call it a single blind study.


During the task to measure aggression, the students wore electrode caps that recorded their level of aggression

by measuring brain activity. This was after playing violent video games and as they viewed the violent pictures.

The results of this research study linked violence to a specific level of brain activity, as measured by brain wave

activity, in response to seeing violent pictures, accident victims and the dead dog mentioned earlier. This was done

to evaluate the subjects level of desensitization. The subjects who regularly played violent video games were more

strongly motivated to be aggressive. They were likely to administer the loud noise to fellow students for a longer

time period as a sign of their aggression. (It is understood that they didn’t know the noise level and duration were

controlled by computers rather than by their actions in pressing buttons.


The scientists conducting this research concluded that it seemed to support what was predicted; that exposure to

violence in the form of playing video games over a long period of time resulted in a significantly higher level of

aggression towards others in comparison to the control group.
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