Do Violent Games Make Violent People? - Shades of Stanford?
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One of the primary methods used for brainwashing a person is roleplaying. When a person is made to pretend or do something enough times, it becomes less of an act and more a part of their regular behavior – a part of their “self,” if you will. This is a technique that Manson and others have used. It’s worth noting that it also has positive applications in psychology, such as when a person is attempting to replace maladaptive behaviors and habits with better ones.
Roleplaying can take on a life of its own, however. The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in 1971, is a case in point. A classic in psychology, the experiment started when Philip Zimbardo recruited male students at the University of Stanford to act as “guards” and “prisoners” in a prison modeled out of the basement of a building. Scheduled to continue for two weeks, the experiment was ended after six days because the guards, prisoners, and even the observers of the experiment were getting too deeply into their roles. You can find more information about this experiment at http://www.prisonexp.org/.
It’s important to note that these males started out the same: all healthy, well-adjusted youths, with nothing to distinguish the ones chosen to be “guards” from the ones chosen to be “prisoners.” And as college students, they were all around the prime age for gamers. What does this say about playing violent video games, assuming your brain really does react to the violence as if it were real?
It’s true that many roleplaying games offer the immersive experience of being in another world. World of Warcraft is a good example. Some players spend more time playing this game than they do interacting with other people in real life. We have to wonder what psychological and emotional effect this has on players.
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