• Reviewed literature and designed research plan • Ran one-hour one-on-one experiment sessions with 20 participants using Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) device • Coded GSR data, conducted statistical analysis, and presented research poster in class

1. Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) Device
Violent Videos: (1) WWE Clip; (2) A man making racist comment in
public got beaten up by a pedestrian (See Pic. 2).
Desensitization Questionnaire: It consists 8 questions designed by
researchers according to the 8 dimensions of desensitization. All
questions were answered on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 7 (extremely).
Procedures
1. GSR baseline is measured for one minute.
2. Participants were randomly assigned to play either violent or non-
violent video game for 15 minutes.
3. Second GSR baseline is measured for one minute immediately
after the game play.
4. Participants are randomly assigned to either complete the delay
task for 15 minutes or not complete the delay task.
5. Participants watched the two videos while GSR is being measured
for the whole time.
6. Participants completed the Desensitization Questionnaire.
RESULTS
2 (Game Types; violent game, non-violent game) x 2 (Delay
Condition; 0-min, 15-min) factorial ANOVA was conducted on the
two DVs with an alpha level of .05.
Self-Reported Desensitization Results
• Cronbach’s Alpha = .639 (after deleting 4 of the 8 items)
• The score of the question to represent the Desensitization
Dimension “likelihood of helping a violence victim” was adopted
as the DV score
• “If you were there, would you help stop the beating?”
• The main effect of Game Types: F(1, 19) = 1.921, p = .185. Non-
violent game players (M = 4.40, SD = .561) were more likely to
show pro-social behavior than violent game players (M = 3.30, SD
= .561).
• The main effect of Delay Conditions and the interaction were not
significant.
Mean GSR Results
• The predicted Game Types x Delay Conditions Interaction was
significant, F(1, 19) = 4.978, p = .04 (See Fig. 2).
• When playing violent games, participants in the 0-min
condition (M = 286.38, SD = 17.64) were less sensitive
to the video than those in the 15-min condition (M =
329.30, SD = 26.24) : t(8) = -3.04, p = .016.
• The main effect of Game Types: F(1, 19) = 2.524, p = .132.
• The main effect of Delay Conditions: F(1, 19) = 21.261, p = .278.
Figure 1: Self-Reported Desensitization score as a function of Game
Types and Delay Conditions
Figure 2: Mean GSR during video watching as a function of Game
Types and Delay Conditions
DISCUSSION
• Low reliability among the items of the questionnaire score for
Self-Reported Desensitization, which reinforced the idea that
desensitization is hard to operationally define.
• Promising direction of the main effect of game type on the self-
reported desensitization.
• Limited sample size and shortened experiment procedure
• Future Direction: increase sample size
REFERENCES
Carnagey, N. L., Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2007). The effect of video game
violence on physiological desensitization to real-life violence. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology, 43(3), 489-496.
Sestir, M. A., & Bartholow, B. D. (2010). Violent and nonviolent video games produce
opposing effects on aggressive and prosocial outcomes. Journal of
Experimental Social Psychology,46(6), 934-942.
ABSTRACT
The current study examined the effect of violent and non-violent
video games on desensitization to real-life violence and the
temporal stability of the effect. The result showed promising main
effect of game type and a significant interaction (delay conditions
x game types).
INTRODUCTION
• Past research has shown that violent media has negative impact on
human behaviors.
• Violent video games have a short-term effect on increasing
aggressive behavior, cognition, affect, physiological arousal, and
decreasing pro-social behavior.
• Carnagey et al. (2007) found the negative impact of violent video
games on desensitization to real-life violence.
• Non-violent video games had the opposing effect. Moreover, when
examining the temporal stability of the video game effect, the
result suggested that after a 15-minute delay, the effect of video
games disappeared (Sestir & Bartholow, 2010).
Main Hypotheses
1. In the 0-min condition, violent game players will be more
desensitized to violence than non-violent game players.
2. In the violent game condition, participants in the 0-min condition
will be more desensitized to violence than those in the 15-min
condition.
3. In the non-violent game condition, participants in the 0-min
condition will be more sensitive to violence than those in the 15-
min condition.
METHOD
Participants
20 students participated (Male = 4, Female = 16)
Materials
Video Games: Hotline Miami (See Pic. 1) was adopted as the violent
game, and Candy Crush as the non-violent game.
Delay Task: participants in the 15-min condition were asked to spend
15 minutes drawing the SMC campus map and the U.S. map.
The Impact of Video Games on Desensitization to Real-Life Violence
Authors: Sarah Sirota & Diana (Jingdan) Zhu
Saint Mary’s College of California
Game Types
non-violent game violent game
Delay
Conditions
0-min non-violent game, 0-min violent game, 0-min
15-min non-violent game, 15-min violent game, 15-min
Picture 1: Hotline Miami Picture 2: a racist man got beaten