If
real violence couldn't create that kind of effect, how come video violence is supposed to be a surefire violence trigger?
I think the difference is in the reality of killing in a war vs. the reality of killing in a computer game. As realistic as the graphics and sound of computer games get, can they really simulate the experience of knowing that you have killed a fellow human being? I think that both in video games and movies, violence is often stylized such that killing people simply looks cool. Consider the lobby scene in
The Matrix. Neo and Trinity have lots of guns. There are lots of bad guys with guns. Then in a very slick scene, they "kill" all the bad guys. Now just take a moment to think about killing someone you know. You are alive; He/she is alive. And say, with a knife, you stab them until they are dead. Just writing this is repulsive to me, but I think it expresses my point. To a mature individual, just a moment of thought and imagination is sufficient to know that the idea of killing another person is abhorrent. Now, for someone who is not mature enough to realize this and disconnect the idea of killing people with the fun of running around and shooting bad guys, they can become confused and think that actually holding a gun and shooting people is no different than shooting bad guys in the video game. I think that is how video violence can go wrong.
