Desensitisation

• When children habitually view aggression or play violent games, they become habituated to it's effects.
• The violence has a diminishing impact leading to less arousal and anxiety. Negative attitudes towards violence weaken and less empathy is felt for victims and injuries are minimised.
• Repeated exposure to violence leaves us less sensitive to the state of the victims
• One of the reasons we are not more aggressive is because we experience an unpleasant emotional response to seeing people hurt

  If we are constantly exposed to aggressive acts, physical violence then empathetic responses may become pulled and people wouldn't feel inhibited in the same way.
• AO3 - research support (Bushmann 2009)

  Found that participants took longer to help someone injuries in a fight after 20 mins of playing a violent game in comparison to participants playing non-violent games. However other studies have failed to find a link.
• AO3 - Carnaghey (2007)

  Found that after playing a violent video game participants showed less physiological arousal to seeing a 10 min film clip involving real life violence that participants who played a less violent game.

  Supports physiological desensitisation
• AO3 - individual differences

  We are not all affected equally, there are individual differences in desensitisation experienced, possibly determined by other life experiences.