Desensitisation

• Desensitisation

  People habituate to the level of violence, their emotional, cognitive and behavioural response is reduced (anxiety and arousal lowers). This means that when we are exposed to violence or aggression repeatedly, it prompts less of a response. Behaviour doesn’t seem as bad as it would have prior to the desensitisation.
• Desensitisation and computer games

  Continual use of computer games can reduce impact and revulsion they have for violence. In theory this makes them more likely to act in a violent way because they have a reduced emotional reaction to it
• A strength of desensitisation is that there is supporting evidence. Krahé et als study showed violent and non violent films to participants whilst measuring physiological arousal. They found that habitual viewers of violent media showed lower arousal and gave louder bursts of white noise to a confederate without being provoked. Lower arousal in these viewers reflects desensitisation and is linked to a greater willingness to be effective.
• A weakness is that desensitisation cannot explain all aggression and there is an alternative explanation. Krahé et als study did not link media viewing and arousal with reactive aggression. Catharsis may explain this as viewing violent media is a safety valve, releasing aggressive impulses without violence. Therefore, not all aggression is the result of desensitisation and alternative explanations may be more valid.