While participants remain ‘numb’ when they see someone being ‘killed’ on screen, apparently harmless games that mirror real life can have a far greater effect.
The study shows a complex link between the way viewers interpret violent and hostile events on the screen and their personal reactions.
Hostile environment: A link has been made between violent computer games and everyday life
There has been a huge debate about whether watching violent video games can desensitise young people’s responses.
Governments around the world have introduced laws to control the sale of games, along with rating systems to alert parents and consumers to the scale of violence.
After 24-year-old Tristan van der Vlis opened fire in a shopping mall in the Netherlands last month, killing six and wounding 17, it was reported that he had been playing a violent game entitled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
But psychologists Dr Simon Goodson and Sarah Pearson, from the University of Huddersfield, found stronger physical and emotional reactions among volunteers playing football games than violent ones.
Trigger: Tristan van der Vils who shot six people dead in the Netherlands last month had been playing Call Of Duty: A Modern Warfare 2
The study, to be presented today at the British Psychological Society’s annual conference in Glasgow, investigated whether events that cause emotional responses in reality trigger similar responses when played in video games.
A football game was chosen because the sport causes strong emotions and sometimes violence in fans.
Forty male and female participants were randomly allocated to play either a violent video game or a football game. Measurements were taken of heart rate, respiration and brain activity before and during play.
Analysis of the results showed that ‘killing’ someone in a game caused little brain activity, but conceding a goal or a foul caused high levels of activity.
Dr Goodson said: ‘There is much concern over the effects of violent video games and how these contribute to general aggression.
‘However, this research indicates that “killing” someone is not as “real” as playing a sport, and that the brain recognises this and doesn’t react in the same way.
‘We all know how people react when England play in the World Cup, and we found these strong emotions could be reproduced by playing a football video game.
‘The player can identify with a real-life experience and call up those emotions and aggression more easily than in a situation they would not have encountered, such as killing an individual.
Outbursts: Computer games have been linked to increases in violence and crime
‘We’ve found that driving and “road rage” scenarios also lead to people becoming angry very quickly compared with a shooting, which is likely to be the result of having experienced these feelings in real life.’
Dr Goodson said the research was not structured to show whether such aggression could spill over into real life or if ‘ordinary’ people had been desensitised by exposure to virtual violence.
Similarly, it did not address whether those with a ‘medical problem’ would react with abnormally high levels of hostility to violent games.
He said: ‘These findings suggest it cannot be automatically assumed that violent content leads directly to aggression, and that further research should attempted to uncover the aspects of video games which can lead to an aggressive response.’ ( dailymail.co.uk )
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