Exposure to Media Violence lowers violence inhibition in the brain

Skybird · 12-11-07, 11:05 AM

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%...l.pone.0001268

I think this should be taken into account with regard to the disucssion of wether or no video games can be a stimulus for players to act violant on the street or even start a school schooting, or not.

I rechecked the statistcial measures they describe (means: I had a look in one of my old statistics book, since I do not have all details on how to do such calculations in my memory anymore, and found their method to be reasonable and accurate. All in all I would have used the same calculation models, when being in their place.

I consider it to be a reasonable guess that if exposure to media violence now is proven on the hardware level - the brain - to weaken inhibitory processes in the brain that usually dampen aggressive behavior, that then something comparable must be expected from violent games as well, because here it is not only passively viewing violence, but actually cimmiting it, and beeing embedded in it.

a theory that explains it I could imagine to focus on this: if you view violence against people like you, it signals the brain a potential conflict situation that eventually may increase and confront you as well - so your organism prepares to fight, and aggression inhibition gets lowered. If your brain receives an even more intense stimulus by witnessing such a situation, but now you even already are surrounded by the conlfict situation and praticipate in it and fight in it in your imagination, this mechanism should lead to an even more lowering of your brain'S agression-inhibiting schemes.

some weeks ago, another study showed that the brain basically DOES NOT DIFFER - on a hardware-level - between abtract, imagined violence (your fantasy), and violence that actually and physically and "for real" is carried out (your actual deed), or is received. It does not need much imgination to see the relevance of that finding for the experiment above.

I have not managed to re-find the link to the second study, sorry.

This is not subjective opinion and political correctness and a given world viev in action anymore, but hard, solid physiological finding, that also hint at the ways of our evolutionary past.

It must find enterance into the usual bla-bla-discussion of wether or not violent games do harm or not. On a neural level, it is clear: such games do affect the organism in favour of a more violent behavior, or a lowering of agression inhibition what means an increase in probability that the indovidual eventually will show aggression in a situation where normally it would not have done so.

12-11-07, 11:05 AM	#1
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,604 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	Exposure to Media Violence lowers violence inhibition in the brain http://www.plosone.org/article/info%...l.pone.0001268 I think this should be taken into account with regard to the disucssion of wether or no video games can be a stimulus for players to act violant on the street or even start a school schooting, or not. I rechecked the statistcial measures they describe (means: I had a look in one of my old statistics book, since I do not have all details on how to do such calculations in my memory anymore, and found their method to be reasonable and accurate. All in all I would have used the same calculation models, when being in their place. I consider it to be a reasonable guess that if exposure to media violence now is proven on the hardware level - the brain - to weaken inhibitory processes in the brain that usually dampen aggressive behavior, that then something comparable must be expected from violent games as well, because here it is not only passively viewing violence, but actually cimmiting it, and beeing embedded in it. a theory that explains it I could imagine to focus on this: if you view violence against people like you, it signals the brain a potential conflict situation that eventually may increase and confront you as well - so your organism prepares to fight, and aggression inhibition gets lowered. If your brain receives an even more intense stimulus by witnessing such a situation, but now you even already are surrounded by the conlfict situation and praticipate in it and fight in it in your imagination, this mechanism should lead to an even more lowering of your brain'S agression-inhibiting schemes. some weeks ago, another study showed that the brain basically DOES NOT DIFFER - on a hardware-level - between abtract, imagined violence (your fantasy), and violence that actually and physically and "for real" is carried out (your actual deed), or is received. It does not need much imgination to see the relevance of that finding for the experiment above. I have not managed to re-find the link to the second study, sorry. This is not subjective opinion and political correctness and a given world viev in action anymore, but hard, solid physiological finding, that also hint at the ways of our evolutionary past. It must find enterance into the usual bla-bla-discussion of wether or not violent games do harm or not. On a neural level, it is clear: such games do affect the organism in favour of a more violent behavior, or a lowering of agression inhibition what means an increase in probability that the indovidual eventually will show aggression in a situation where normally it would not have done so. __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert. Last edited by Skybird; 12-11-07 at 02:14 PM.