Are more violent, realistic video games having negative impacts on consumers?
That's what one University at Buffalo study is pointing towards.
According to the UB research, "the moral response produced by the initial exposure to a video game decreases as experience with the game develops."
Researchers had previously found that "gamers feel guilty committing unjustified acts of violence within the game." However, over the years, video games have becoming increasingly more authentic.
According to research done by Matthew Grizzard, an assistant professor of communication who led the study, there are two arguments that point towards desensitization amongst gamers.
In one of those theories, gamers repeat the same games, which makes them "less sensitive to all guilty-including stimuli," Grizzard said.
The second theory proposes that, "the gamers' perception has adapted and started to see the game's violence differently." The researchers emphasized the the gamers understood that the game was not reality.
Grizzard said his research will continue.
