Sydney : Playing violent video games comes at a cost—-it fosters insensitivity and tends to kill core human values such as warmth, open-mindedness and intelligence.
Brock Bastian from the University of Queensland School of Psychology and co-authors looked at whether the experience of cyber-violence had dehumanising consequences for players and their opponents.
Given his findings, it was not surprising that many people were concerned about the effects of playing violent video games, such as ‘Mortal Kombat,’ especially regrading our behaviour, emotions, and cognitions, the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology reports.
“There are good reasons to be concerned: the negative effects of violent video games have been well documented and appear to be more significant than those associated with other forms of violent media,” Bastian said, according to a Queensland statement.
Bastian explained that one reason violence within video games was more powerful that other forms of violent media was that people identified with, and to some extent felt responsible for, the violence they perpetuated within virtual environments.
The second part of the study had participants playing each game in collaboration with a co-player, such that both players were playing together against computer-generated avatars.
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