Moral (Dis-)Engagement. How real life context can sensitize players of violent video games

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Psychology - Media Psychology, grade: 1,3, University of Duisburg-Essen, language: English, abstract: Shooting sprees and acts of terrorism shake public opinion and media agendas eminently as the discourse involves strong emotions like anxiety and fear towards violence against humans. Violent video games might arouse similar emotions to individuals, they are often suspected to be the origin of aggression and violent potential of young and male perpetrators with no perspective and a poor social environment.

Research on violent video games is ubiquitous, yet lacks consensus on the effects of these entertainment products and the level of aggression or other emotions aroused by the consumption of violent media. This study outline proposes to invert the leading question - not to depreciate the wonder of how we step into the real world after we have played violent video games - but to find out how we step into violent video games after we have been shattered by reality.