Violent Video Games Reduce Guilt Over Time

If you play violent video games continuously, you may feel less guilty, according to a new study from the University of Buffalo. The initial response of committing unjustified acts of violence might make gamers feel guilty, but over time the feeling would reduce.

Experts tried to find out whether violent video games take you to "emotional desensitization" or not, and if it shifts into the area of real-life scenarios.

When asked to get involved in alternative versions of the violent game for four days, with half playing the "moral United Nations soldier" and the other half role-playing an "immoral terrorist soldier", the participants were asked to play a new game as terrorists after four days of the experiment.

Study results revealed that guilt was significantly reduced on Day 5 in participants who had previously been assigned to play the immoral terrorist soldier.

"Results indicate two things. First, habituation occurs over repeated game play: Repeated exposure decreased the ability of the original game to elicit guilt. Second, the decreased ability to elicit guilt can generalize to other game-play experiences," the research team wrote.

"The current study provides causal, longitudinal evidence regarding the potential for video game play to lead to emotional desensitization with regard to future video game-play experiences," they added.

Lead researcher Matthew Grizzard, assistant professor of communication at the University of Buffalo, believes that there are two arguments for the desensitization effect found in the study.

"One is that people are deadened because they've played these games over and over again. This makes the gamers less sensitive to all guilt-inducing stimuli," he said. 

"This second argument says the desensitization we're observing is not due to being numb to violence because of repeated play, but rather because the gamers' perception has adapted and started to see the game's violence differently," Grizzard explained. "Through repeated play, gamers may come to understand the artificiality of the environment and disregard the apparent reality provided by the game's graphics."

The findings were published in March 30,2016 issue of the journal Media Psychology.