Video Games Show How People Can Justify Violence

When killing someone is not justified, your brain area lights up to tell you that you have made an immoral decision, according to a study involving violent video games. The experiment involved neural mechanisms involved in harming others. They become less active when violence perpetrated on a particular group is looked at as "justified", according to the indianexpress.

The study involved participants in video games, who imagined that they were shooting civilians who were innocent, and thus perpetrating "unjustified" violence. On the other hand, when "enemies" were shot, the violence was looked at as "justified".

Hence, the brain activity was recorded through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Dr Pascal Molenberghs from the Monash University agreed that the results gave important results of how people in a few situations, such as war, can perpetrate extreme violence.

The recent study is also expected to expand understanding on violence by the police force on victims of other races, such as the recent Michael Brown and Walter Scott killings, according to thinkprogress.

"When participants imagined themselves shooting civilians compared to soldiers, greater activation was found in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), an important brain area involved in making moral decisions," Molenberghs said.

"The more guilt participants felt about shooting civilians, the greater the response in the lateral OFC. When shooting enemy soldiers, no activation was seen in lateral OFC," said Molenberghs.

"The findings show that when a person is responsible for what they see as justified or unjustified violence, they will have different feelings of guilt associated with that - for the first time we can see how this guilt relates to specific brain activation," Molenberghs added.

There is expected to be more research into the process of desensitization of participants and the influence of both personality and group membership can influence these processes, according to an article published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.