Summary: A controlled experimental study by researchers at the University of Vienna and the Karolinska Institute questions the common claim that playing violent video games reduces empathy. Adult men with minimal prior exposure to violent games were tested before and after a multi-week gaming period in which one group played a violent version of Grand Theft Auto V while a control group played a non-violent version. Behavioral tests and fMRI scans revealed no measurable reduction in empathy or altered neural responses to others’ pain after the gaming sessions.
Key Facts:
- The study included 89 adult male participants specifically chosen for minimal previous exposure to violent video games to avoid prior experience bias.
- Participants in the experimental group played a highly violent version of Grand Theft Auto V; those in the control group played a non-violent version with violence removed. Neither group showed significant changes in empathic behavior or associated brain activity.
- The authors caution against overgeneralizing the findings: the study addresses short-term, controlled exposure in healthy adults and recommends further research for longer exposures and vulnerable populations such as children and adolescents.
Source: University of Vienna
Background and purpose
As video games—many of which contain explicit depictions of violence—play an increasing role in everyday life, public concern persists that violent video games might desensitize players and reduce empathy for real-world suffering. To examine this question with rigorous methods, an international team led by Vienna neuroscientists Claus Lamm and Lukas Lengersdorff designed a prospective, longitudinal experiment combining behavioral testing and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Participants and experimental design
The study recruited 89 healthy adult men who reported little or no prior experience with violent video games. This selection reduced the influence of previous exposure on the outcomes. Researchers first assessed baseline empathy with behavioral tasks and fMRI measures that recorded neural responses while participants observed another person receiving painful electric shocks and while viewing violent images.
Over the next two weeks, each participant visited the lab seven times for one-hour gaming sessions. The experimental group played a highly violent edition of Grand Theft Auto V and were instructed to engage in violent in-game actions, while the control group played a matched version with all violent content removed and were given nonviolent goals such as photographing in-game characters. After the gaming phase, all participants completed the same behavioral and neuroimaging assessments again.
Results
Across behavioral measures and brain imaging data, the researchers found no evidence that short-term exposure to violent video game content reduced empathy for others’ pain or changed emotional reactivity to violent images. Neural activity in regions commonly linked to empathic processing—such as the anterior insula and anterior midcingulate cortex—showed no significant differences between the violent-game group and the non-violent control group. The authors used Bayesian statistical methods to quantify evidence and report substantial support for the absence of an effect under these controlled conditions.
Interpretation and limitations
The authors emphasize careful interpretation. Lukas Lengersdorff notes that the findings do not prove violent video games are universally harmless. Instead, they demonstrate that, in mentally healthy adult men with minimal prior exposure and under tightly controlled experimental conditions, a few hours of gameplay across several sessions did not blunt empathy or desensitize participants to real-world violence.
Claus Lamm highlights the study’s methodological contribution: strong experimental controls and a longitudinal design that allow more reliable causal inference than single-session experiments. Nevertheless, the team recognizes important limitations: the sample excludes women and vulnerable subpopulations, exposure was relatively short, and lab-based settings may differ from real-world gaming environments. These factors leave room for effects to emerge in other groups, contexts with higher ecological validity, or after more extensive play.
Next steps for research
Future studies should examine longer-term gameplay, include diverse age groups (especially children and adolescents whose brains are still developing), and test vulnerable populations or individuals with preexisting risk factors for aggression or reduced empathy. Ethical constraints complicate such research, but the authors call for careful, controlled investigations that balance ecological validity with participant safety and scientific rigor.
About this empathy, psychology, and gaming research news
Author: Theresa Bittermann
Source: University of Vienna
Contact: Theresa Bittermann – University of Vienna
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access. Title: “Neuroimaging and behavioral evidence that violent video games exert no negative effect on human empathy for pain and emotional reactivity to violence” by Lukas Lengersdorff et al., published in eLife. The study reports fMRI and behavioral data from a prospective experiment testing the causal impact of violent video games on empathy and emotional reactivity.
Abstract
Neuroimaging and behavioral evidence that violent video games exert no negative effect on human empathy for pain and emotional reactivity to violence
Some influential accounts argue that violent video games (VVGs) desensitize players and reduce emotional empathy, but empirical evidence has been mixed. This prospective experimental study used fMRI and behavioral paradigms to assess whether short-term exposure to VVGs causally alters empathy for others’ pain or emotional reactivity to violent imagery. The researchers recruited 89 male participants without prior VVG experience and had them play a highly violent or a non-violent version of the same game over two weeks. Pre- and post-exposure assessments measured neural and behavioral responses to pain and violent scenes. A Bayesian analysis provided substantial evidence for the absence of VVG effects on the measured behavioral and neural correlates of empathy; participants in the violent game group were not desensitized to images of real-world violence. The findings suggest that short, controlled exposure to violent video games does not numb empathy in healthy adult men, while acknowledging that effects could still occur in other populations, with longer exposure, or in less-controlled real-world settings.