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Diminishing Empathy: Desensitisation, Violence, and the Media
Lee Cheng Jie
When her fingers aren't flickering past the keyboard creating written or Youtube content, Allison can be found in a corner reading, binging American/Taiwanese shows, songwriting, or making a mean cup of chocolate.
Following the advent of the digital and technological era, the majority of the global population has the media at their fingertips. Be it stopping by the local theatre to catch the latest film, unlocking their phone for a quick news update, or sending videos to friends via text, we are enveloped by the media. However, this seamless, rapid, and constant exchange of information and entertainment comes chained with a set of consequences, the most prominent and controversial being the issue of desensitisation.
Though many have heard of “desensitisation”, not many truly understand what the term entails. “Desensitisation ” on its own is a therapeutical technique applied to help patients confront their phobias; in media theory however, it takes a more sinister turn. Krahé, Möller, Huesmann, Kirwil, Felber, and Berger (2011) defines it as ‘a course through which “initial arousal responses to violent stimuli are reduced, thereby changing an individual’s ‘present internal state”’.
This process of desensitisation commonly occurs when the audience is exposed to violent media or news (Carnagey, Anderson, Bushman, 2007), so much so to the point where it numbs their senses and heightens their threshold for what constitutes ‘violent’. The sheer volume of terrorism and mass-shooting cases in recent years has contributed to the widespread of this phenomenon, let alone the showing of violence in TV shows, movies, video games, and more.
The explosion of mass media to households and individuals didn’t exactly pave the way for more violence; rather, the media is a lens through which we see how violent our world truly is. With the speed at which information can be transmitted these days, it is not surprising that everybody is overexposed to too many pieces of content at once.
In the acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451, we observe instances where the characters in Ray Bradbury’s fictional dystopia pay no mind to others’ sufferings. The protagonist’s wife, Mildred, is a victim of desensitisation.
As a woman burned in her house with the books she had illegally harboured, Mildred expressed neither emotion nor empathy, simply watching in stone-cold silence. Burning has become such a norm in their world that rarely anybody bats an eye when a life is sacrificed. When confronted by her husband, Mildred responds that she is disinterested in discussing someone who is already dead and would rather look at the colourful people projected onto her television screen panels.
Perhaps in real life, it’s unlikely for us to completely ignore the death of another, but the effects of this phenomenon should not be taken lightly. To sum up the three consequences of desensitisation to children as researched by the American Psychological Association, they become less sensitive to others’ suffering, fear their environment, and behave aggressively in interaction with others.
A simple example would be the young audiences of superhero movies. With the main character being a hero who saves the world from the villain, most parents would rest assure when they put on a Marvel or DC classic for their kids to watch, thinking their child will learn to be a selfless hero who defends others. However, according to family life professor Sarah M. Coyne, “Kids pick up on the aggressive themes and not the defending ones.” She goes on to elaborate in her research that children who watched more superhero-related films did not protect bullied kids or present themselves to be more sociable, rather, they tend to lean into aggression.
Trending video games such as “Counter-Strike” or “Grand Theft Auto” are another source of media that glorifies instances of violence like assassination, arson, and murder. Though there is no concrete study that links violent video game players to violent crime, the effect that those games have on the players are still undeniable.
The consequences of desensitisation do not sound like it has any drastic impact on society, but this is where we have to take a step back and look at the bigger, long-term picture. A collective loss of empathy will make us more rational and less unfeeling. While the former sounds beneficial, daily interactions between people, communities, organizations, and states depend on social preferences and emotions as much as they do logic. A lack of empathy would make for an indifferent world, which is more frightening than one filled with hatred because it implies we no longer care about others.
Media has grown to be a fixture in our daily lives, making it a challenge to escape the desensitisation brought around by it. Parents can filter and limit the kinds of films shown to their kids, but it’s unfeasible to keep doing that forever. Ultimately, we are the only being that can prevent ourselves from getting too desensitised. What we can do is to make ourselves aware of this phenomenon and allow ourselves to react rationally to events, whilst still holding on to the empathy that makes us human.