# Studies Show Scientists Don't Know TV Violence isn't Real **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 29, 2006, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532 "2006-07-29T12:48:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/1 "2006-07-29T12:48:02Z")
[“Research led by a pair of Iowa State University psychologists has proven for the first time that exposure to violent video games can desensitize individuals to real-life violence.”](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060727162108.htm) What this report insists on referring to as Real Violence, is in fact movie violence. That is, subjects who played violent games had lesser physiological reactions to violent scenes from TV or Movies. If the researchers believe the difference is trivial, I submit that it looks like it’s scientists, not gamers, who are losing the ability to make the distinction. I suspect that if they’d actually tested reactions to real-life violence their findings would be less conclusive. Just watching two people get into a shoving match in real life will provoke more physiological reaction in a witness than a shooting on television. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/2 "2006-07-29T13:05:20Z")
> [@ScienceDaily](#): > > Their paper reports that past research – including their own studies – documents that exposure to violent video games increases aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, physiological arousal and aggressive behaviors, and decreases helpful behaviors. That is pretty interesting and I wonder how far this can go. When I was a kid we used to pretend like we were pro-wrestlers and sometimes people would get hurt. It is interesting that they count scenes from movies as “real” violence. I agree that violence on screen or in video games will desensitive one to other forms of fake violence. The first time I played Grand Theft Auto it was pretty shocking but by the time GTA San Andreas came out the violence and langage was not nearly as shocking. I don’t think I’m desensitized to real violence though. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/3 "2006-07-29T13:15:48Z")
> [@MGibson](#): > > The first time I played Grand Theft Auto it was pretty shocking but by the time GTA San Andreas came out the violence and langage was not nearly as shocking. I don’t think I’m desensitized to real violence though. After you play the game, they should hand you a baseball bat and tell you to steal a car with it. See how that affects your heart rate. Now that would be some data. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/4 "2006-07-29T14:09:37Z")
Did you see the story on [Slashdot](http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/27/1728251&threshold=3) about “The 64% Violent Pacman”? Seriously, don’t these people [have anything better to do?](http://www.kidsrisk.harvard.edu/mainFrame/news/faqs8.html) ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/5 "2006-07-29T14:23:35Z")
> [@Johnny Angel](#): > > What this report insists on referring to as Real Violence, is in fact movie violence People! ISU is located in _Ames Fucking Iowa_\*. It’s an extremely white land-grant college town where they roll up the sidewalks at 10:30 pm. The only Real Violence these people ever SEE is on TV, in the movies, or whenever there’s a tornado, blizzard or hailstorm. Were this study to have taken place somewhere where the psychic makeup of daily life has more jagged edges - someplace more urban and mixed - you’d probably have a better base for an experiment like this. \*My hometown, so I’ll talk about it any way I like, thankyuh. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/6 "2006-07-29T14:51:26Z")
Huh. I was all set to defend these guys on the basis that it’s usually science writers in the media that fuck these things up and extrapolate wildly, but no; the stupidity is right there in the title of their paper. Wow. That really is remarkably dumb. And it doesn’t even seem like they acknowledge that one’s physiological response to _anything_ might be altered after playing high-adrenaline games for an hour or so, without having any implications for one’s psychological “desensitisation”. Pfft. On the subject, I’d just like to plug one of my favourite websites, [badscience.net](http://www.badscience.net/), which is a spin-off of a regular column in the Guardian newspaper in the UK which roundly mocks stupid science reporting in the media at large (including the Guardian). It’s never short of material, and is frequently quite vitriolic and funny. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/7 "2006-07-29T15:14:13Z")
Unfortunately there are “ethical concerns” when you pay bums to knife fight in front of the participants. Stupid IRBs. The professors could have picked a more accurate title, but you can’t really fault them for their method. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/8 "2006-07-29T15:28:54Z")
[QUOTE=MGibson] I don’t think I’m desensitized to real violence though. Marc [/QUOTE] I’ll bet if you saw enough real violence your would be. I think, without much proof, that if you live in surrounding of continued violence you either break down or become so desensitized that you are content if it isn’t happening to you. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/9 "2006-07-29T15:38:25Z")
[QUOTE=Wolfian] The professors could have picked a more accurate title, but you can’t really fault them for their method. [/QUOTE] You most certainly can; this is shocking misrepresentation of their “work” in order to garner headlines (which has of course worked marvellously for them). It’s simply not acceptable, when faced with a tricky experimental problem, to study something completely different and still claim to have done the difficult work. They use the phrase “real-life” throughout their paper ([link](http://www.public.iastate.edu/~vasser/pubs/06CAB.pdf), pdf), and constantly equivocate physiological response differences with psychological desensitisation. It’s just roundly shit, as far as I can see. To their credit, they appear to have controlled for non-violent adrenalin-based games, so y’know, they’re not _completely_ full of it. Just mostly. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/10 "2006-07-29T16:17:53Z")
Well, if scientists can’t diffentiate between real life violence and movie violence, we should lock them all up before they hurt someone. ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/11 "2006-07-29T17:38:58Z")
[QUOTE=David Simmons] I’ll bet if you saw enough real violence your would be. I think, without much proof, that if you live in surrounding of continued violence you either break down or become so desensitized that you are content if it isn’t happening to you. [/QUOTE] I think there is truth in this. Look at members of the military- men and women who are much more unaffected by horrible acts of violence than the average civilian in the States. I know if I saw someone being blown up, I’d freak the hell out. My friend is a soldier and has seen it (and worse things) so many times that he can pretty much just ignore it and continue on with what he was doing. Of course, part of this is that he has to continue with what he was doing, but such a display of apathy isn’t a particularly unheard of phenomena. I should note he isn’t evil- he certainly thinks about the horrible things he has seen and the have an effect on him. I would just argue the effect on his is much less than on, say, me or you. But an example of the other side are the videos of the beheadings that are floating around the internet. You can see a million movies with heads being chopped off, but (and I haven’t seen the videos, this is just what I’ve been told by everyone who has) Hollywood is _nothing_ like the actual act. Perhaps I have particularly delicate friends, but every single one of them was freaked out for weeks after seeing the decapitations. ---
**Author:** ![Tikkiw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e68b1a/32.png) [@Tikkiw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikkiw)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/12 "2006-07-29T17:43:16Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] People! ISU is located in _Ames Fucking Iowa_\*. It’s an extremely white land-grant college town where they roll up the sidewalks at 10:30 pm. The only Real Violence these people ever SEE is on TV, in the movies, or whenever there’s a tornado, blizzard or hailstorm. [/QUOTE] Hey now, we have world class riots, fueled by the best drunken fratfucks money can buy. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/13 "2006-07-29T18:53:33Z")
How do they know that the video game violence is the only violence the test subjects get? Seeing the violence of Iraq every night has desentized me to that. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/14 "2006-07-29T19:37:50Z")
If I played a game where the point was to run over people, I could play it and even laugh at some of the scenes. Then I could turn around and watch a movie where people get run over and even laugh at that. But if I then walked outside and watched someone get run over a car, I wouldn’t laugh at all. In fact, I would be terribly devastated at having seen that. Like **Evil Captor** said, if those “scientists” can’t tell the difference between movie violence and real-life violence, maybe we should put them away before someone gets hurt. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/15 "2006-07-29T20:44:20Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Well, if scientists can’t diffentiate between real life violence and movie violence, we should lock them all up before they hurt someone. [/QUOTE] It should make it very simple, because we can lock them up in a movie set built to look like a real prison. Fortunately, they won’t be able to escape without undergoing some Tough Love, some learning, a little bit of bonding, and some wacky hijinks involving the laundry and maybe some crusty-but-lovable old guy who works in the prison plate shop. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/16 "2006-07-29T22:12:37Z")
[QUOTE=Dead Badger] On the subject, I’d just like to plug one of my favourite websites, [badscience.net](http://www.badscience.net/), which is a spin-off of a regular column in the Guardian newspaper in the UK which roundly mocks stupid science reporting in the media at large (including the Guardian). It’s never short of material, and is frequently quite vitriolic and funny. [/QUOTE] Thanks for that link. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/17 "2006-07-31T05:28:42Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] People! ISU is located in _Ames Fucking Iowa_\*. It’s an extremely white land-grant college town where they roll up the sidewalks at 10:30 pm. [/QUOTE] They wait til 10:30 now? They’re on the path to perdition. ---
**Author:** ![Tikkiw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e68b1a/32.png) [@Tikkiw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikkiw)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2006, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/studies-show-scientists-dont-know-tv-violence-isnt-real/366532/18 "2006-07-31T05:34:06Z")
Oh, and Ames is 87.34% white, whereas Iowa as a whole is 92.6% white. So Ames is a solid 5% more Asian.