Saturday, December 8, 2007

"This is Your Brain on Violent Media"

Via Slashdot, this press release:

Although research has shown some correlation between exposure to media violence and real-life violent behavior, there has been little direct neuroscientific support for this theory until now.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center’s Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) Research Center have shown that watching violent programs can cause parts of your brain that suppress aggressive behaviors to become less active.


I've long been of the opinion that repeated viewings of violent media do desensitize one to real-life violence. I consider this evidence for that.

UPDATE: The writing on the rest of this post is horrible. It's been deleted until I figure out where I went wrong.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was bound to be research to support this theory. At least once a week I'm reading or seeing something that should horrify me, but instead I focus on deciding if I should buy bulk cumin to refill my container or just get a whole new bottle instead. Wildfires, floods, genocide, mass murders: all items I have about 2 minutes of patience for on the news before I switch to another channel. Something along the way destroyed whatever heart or compassion I may have had growing up.

 
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