Violence and Desensitization
Media Violence and Desensitization
Patricia Greenleaf
Walden University
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Desensitization happens when a person has decreased aversion to
violent or other disturbing events.
Romer et al. (2014) confirm this by
stating that desensitization occurs when individuals who are repeatedly
exposed to disturbing content has a reduced emotional response to that
content.
When there is desensitization to violence or other disturbing
content, those individuals begin to normalize what is happening or downplay
the effects (
Vossen, Piotrowski, & Valkenburg, 2016).
In one study of parental desensitization, parents were shown levels of
violent and sexual clips of movies. They were asked to indicate what age
group would these movies be appropriate for Romer et al. (2014).
As time
passed and parents continued to watch the clips, the age of appropriateness
decreased in number.
In other words, as they continued to watch, they
lowered the age of the child for which the movies would be appropriate.
The symptoms of desensitization are explained by Mrug, Madan, and
Windle (2016).
One symptom they discovered was emotional
desensitization.
They researched how children were emotionally
desensitized due to their exposure to violence.
It was found that even if
there were initial bouts of depression, anxiety, or stress, after watching the
clips over and over again, the emotional response would lessen. Then
adolescents' would experience a dampening of their emotions and would,
therefore, experience less depression, anxiety, or stress (Mrug, Madan, &
Windle, 2016).
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This dampening effect could be a blessing and a curse.
This numbing
