I'm playing Dead Rising right now, and jeez am I slaughtering a lot of zombies. I can't recall the amount I've cleaved in half with a samurai sword. Now word comes out that just playing a violent game like that can make you numb to real life brutality. So what evidence do researchers have to back that up with?

From the article:

Playing violent video games, even for only 20 minutes, desensitises people to real-world violence, new research contends.

“We found that the subjects who played violent video games for 20 minutes had lower physiologic responses when they watched videos of real-life violence,” said Nicholas Carnagey, who conducted the research while a psychology instructor at Iowa State University in Ames. He explained that these lowered physical responses meant the person felt less emotional upset when viewing real-life brutality.

All of the participants had similar heart rates and other signs of arousal before exposure to real-life violence, which included videotaped shootings, prison fights and police confrontations. The people who played violent video games for 20 minutes had lower galvanic skin responses (lower perspiration) and heart rates while watching the real-life footage. “A lot of other studies on exposure to violent video games indicated that we would find this, but it surprised us that only 20 minutes of exposure was enough to show this effect,” Carnagey said.

Read the full article over at DNAIndia.com