Do violent video games numb us towards real violence?

Fig. C: Pexels / Ron Lach Results of a neuroscientific study suggest that violence in video games has no negative influence on the empathy of adults Neuroscientists from the University of Vienna and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm have investigated whether playing violent video games leads to a reduction in human empathy. To do this, they had adult test subjects play a violent video game repeatedly over the course of an experiment lasting several weeks. Before and after, their empathic responses to the pain of another person were measured. It was found that the violent video game had no discernible effect on empathy and underlying brain activity. These results have now been published in the renowned journal eLife . Video games have become an integral part of the everyday life of many children and adults.