Playing Violent Video Games, Desensitization, and Moral Evaluation in Children

Bechtold, Heidi, Buchman, Debra D., Funk, Jeanne B., and Jenks, Jennifer. “Playing Violent Video Games, Desensitization, and Moral Evaluation in Children.” Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 24.4 (2003): 413-436 Scholar Search. Web 11 Mar. 2010.

The authors of this article are members of the Department of Psychology at the University of Toledo and the School of Nursing at the Medical College of Ohio. They set out to find proof for the hypothesis that violent video games may cause desensitization and impairment of moral evaluation. They found that the age of the child is a key factor in how influential a violent video game is on him. Children under the age of seven were much more likely to be affected by violent games than those ages seven and up. They also found that when adults play a violent video game, it has the power to override even their relatively stable personality traits. The article has a section about desensitization in which it explains the process of how this happens and how video games can cause it. Desensitization can also override a person’s empathy.