the media

• desensitisation

  the process by which, through repeated exposure to aggressive stimuli, individuals show decreased emotional, cognitive and behavioural responses to aggression
• the effects of video games

  exposure to violence in video games may have a desensitising effect, with individuals being positively reinforced to display aggression

  however, it can be argued video games allow the opportunity for catharsis, benefiting the individual and society
• bartholow and anderson

  students asked to play violent game vs non violent game (mortal kombat vs golf simulator) for 10 minutes

  carried out TCRTT which blasts white noise at chosen volumes to punish an opponent

  violent - higher decibels at 5.97db

  non violent - lower decibels at 4.6db
• krahe et al

  showed p's violent and non violent film clips, measured physiological arousal using skin conductance

  habitual viewers of violence = lower levels of arousal, higher pleasant arousal, lower anxious arousal

  lower arousal correlated with unprovoked aggression in a noise blast task
• disinhibition

  normal social constraints against certain behaviours can be weakened by environmental triggers

  these behaviours appear temporarily socially acceptable and therefore more likely
• the role of disinhibition

  restraints around socially accepted aggressive behaviour are loosened after exposure to violent media. in violent media, aggression is portrayed as normative and acceptable, especially if it minimises the effects on victim and suggests its justified

  new social norms are created for the viewer
• berkowitz and alioto

  p's who watched film depicting aggression as revenge and therefore a just response gave more fake electric shocks to a confederate
• cognitive priming

  violent images provide ready made scripts about aggression which are stored in memory and triggered when we perceive aggressive cues in a situation
• fischer et al

  male p's who listened to songs featuring aggressively derogatory lyrics about women recalled more negative qualities about women and behaved aggressively to a female confederate (cue). the same happened for women!
• delisi et al 2013

  227 juvenile offenders

  significant correlation between how often they played violent video games and how much they enjoyed them
• anderson et al

  meta analysis of 136 studies, all methodologies

  exposure to violent games was associated with increases in aggression

  true for everyone, males females individualist collectivist