Desensitisation, Disinhibition & Cognitive Priming in Aggression (AQA A Level Psychology): Revision Note

Desensitisation

• Desensitisation occurs when repeated exposure to something previously disturbing, such as violence or aggression, results in a reduced emotional reaction

• What once triggered fear, discomfort, or moral aversion becomes perceived as ordinary or acceptable

  • This reduction in sensitivity is thought to be a physiological adaptation, involving a dampening of the sympathetic nervous system response — the system responsible for the body's fight-or-flight reaction (e.g. raised heart rate, release of adrenaline)

• Over time, frequent exposure to violent media, including certain video games, can cause individuals to become less emotionally reactive to violence

  • This can lead to a numbing effect, where acts of aggression are no longer seen as shocking or morally wrong, and empathy for victims of violence may decrease

• Research has raised concerns about the potential link between this kind of media-induced desensitisation and real-world aggression, including violent incidents such as mass shootings in the U.S. (Cantor, 2003).

Research which investigates desensitisation & aggression

• Brockmyer (2021) - A review article which concluded that exposure to violent computer games increases the risk of desensitisation to violence, which in turn may increase aggression and decrease prosocial behaviour

• Carnagey et al. (2007) - Participants who played a violent computer game for 20 minutes, followed by a 10-minute video of  real-life violence had a lower heart rate and galvanic skin response than participants who played a non-violent computer game; thus, the violent game may have produced physiological desensitisation to violent content

Disinhibition

• Disinhibition occurs when someone lets go of the usual restraints and caution that hold them back from behaving the way they may (secretly) want to

• Disinhibition may involve the breaking of social norms that may well be learned from the behaviour exhibited by role models (e.g. celebrities, sportspeople, the government)

• Consumption of mass media in the form of TV, films, gaming, news channels, and social media may have a disinhibiting effect on an individual, particularly if that consumption includes a lot of violent and aggressive content, e.g.,

  • A teenage boy who thinks that violence is an acceptable way to deal with problems, because this is how his favourite film character behaves

  • A woman who is openly hostile to asylum seekers because of derogatory comments she reads almost every day in her newspaper

• When someone is exposed to a lot of media-led aggression, they begin to view the world using a modified set of social norms, e.g., aggression is acceptable 

• These new social norms may replace  those which have been established for, possibly, centuries, e.g.,

  • Treat people how you would like to be treated

  • Give people the benefit of the doubt

  • Be polite to people regardless of their social status

• One of the major factors in the continuing existence of disinhibition is that media sources often portray aggression and violence as positive acts that are rewarded, so the message is: ‘It’s fine to be violent because look at the benefits!’

Research which investigates disinhibition & aggression

• Kurek et al. (2019) found that high school students with ‘dark’ personality traits (narcissism, psychopathy and sadism) were more likely to engage in cyber aggression, particularly when their true identity was disguised

• Josephson (1987) – A naturalistic observation of grade 2 and 3 boys during a game of floor hockey found that naturally high-aggressive boys played hockey more aggressively after watching a violent TV programme compared to low-aggressive boys who had watched the same violent TV programme

Cognitive priming

• Cognitive priming refers to how environmental cues work to trigger aggression 

• Huesmann (1998) claims that cognitive priming is a sort of schema (specifically a script schema) in which an individual’s memory makes associations between objects, people and situations to provide cues as to how to act/behave

• Script schemas outline our expectations per situation (as long as we are familiar with the context)

  • E.g., the young man walking towards me wearing a hoodie looks like he might mug me

• People who consume a lot of violent media are likely to develop rigid schemas and are easily primed to anticipate or respond to aggressive stimuli than those who do not consume a lot of violent media (Berkowitz, 1984)

Research which investigates cognitive priming

• Leyens & Dunand (1991) – male participants were told that they would watch a violent or a neutral film and were then told to give (fake) electric shocks to a confederate: the participants who were primed to watch a violent film gave higher levels of electric shocks than those in the neutral-film condition

• Bushman (1998) - participants who watched a violent video had faster reaction times to aggressive words than those who had watched a non-violent video 

Evaluation of Desensitisation, Disinhibition & Cognitive Priming

Strengths

• All of these features of media influence on aggression are hugely important for policy-makers and those working in fields such as education, health and law enforcement to understand, e.g., the fact that a weapon is a key priming stimulus which could be used to try to prevent the growing problem of knife crime

• An awareness of cognitive priming could be used to promote prosocial behaviours or attitudes in computer gaming, e.g., introducing weaponless combat games and emphasising resolution rather than conflict

Limitations

• There is no concrete, 100%-watertight proof that media consumption causes – or even triggers – aggressive behaviour, so the theories linked to media influence on aggression remain debatable

• All of these features of media influence on aggression are difficult to operationalise and measure, e.g., at what point does an individual become disinhibited, and how can this be observed in their behaviour?

Issues & Debates

• These theories suggest that repeated exposure to violent media determines aggressive responses (e.g. via priming or disinhibition)

  • This implies behaviour is automatic and not under conscious control

  • This challenges the notion of free will, as individuals may act aggressively without realising they’ve been influenced

• These ideas are socially sensitive, as they may lead to public concern over media consumption, especially among young people

  • They also risk demonising gamers or TV viewers without sufficient evidence, which can cause moral panic or unjustified censorship