A new study demonstrates the relationship between the aggressiveness of boys and the number of violent video games, films and TV shows they watch, reports the Daily Mail.
Scientists scanned the brain activity of boys aged 14 to 17 years after they watched a series of video clips and the results were startling.
The longer the boys watched violent sports fans and street brawls, the less their brains lit up. They actually became less excited by the action over time.
They also tested the boys while they watched films with little or no violence—with the results showing that they held the boys’ interest, suggesting that the lack of interest in violent films was not due to boredom, but to their minds becoming increasingly desensitized or numb to the action.
Study leader Dr Jordan Grafman, of the National Institutes of Health at Bethesda, Maryland, said: “The implications of this are many and include the idea that continued exposure to violent videos will make an adolescent less sensitive to violence, more accepting of violence and more likely to commit aggressive acts since the emotional component associated with aggression is reduced and normally acts as a brake on aggressive behaviour.”