DESENSITISATION:
GENTILE:
n
an experiment to determine the effects of violent video games causing
physiological desensitization to real-life violence, participants played either
a violent or non-violent video game for 20 minutes. After that, they watched a
10 minute video containing real-life violence while their heart rate and
galvanic skin responses were being monitored. The participants who played
violent video games previously to watching the video showed lower heart rate
and galvanic skin response readings compared to those who had not played
violent video games displaying a physiological desensitization to violence
Children
are exposed to outlets of media more and more in their everyday lives. The violent and inappropriate things that
they see through these forms of media desensitize them and have a large
negative impact on their everyday lives. Desensitization to violence is a
subtle, almost incidental process which may occur as a result of repeated
exposure to real-life violence, as well as exposure to media violence.
Emotional desensitization is evident when there is numbing or blunting of
emotional reactions to events which would typically elicit a strong response.
Cognitive desensitization is evident when the belief that violence is uncommon
and unlikely becomes the belief that violence is mundane and inevitable
The "hypodermic
needle theory" implied mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on its audiences.
The mass media in the
1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behavior change.
Several factors
contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication,
including:
•- the fast rise and
popularization of radio and television
•- the emergence of
the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda
•- the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s,
which focused on the
impact of motion pictures on children
•- Hitler's
monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind
the Nazi party
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