fuzzy post-it

apo-el:

Correlation does not equal causation.  I am furthermore skeptical that those six video games are enough to show a trend regarding exposure to violence.

There was a study conducted in 1959 by a guy called Hornberger.  Participants were insulted by a confederate, and split into two groups.  One was asked to bang nails into a board for ten minutes, while the other group sat around for ten minutes doing nothing.  The group that got a cathartic vent was more hostile towards the confederate, not less, than the control. There is also the famous Bobo doll experiment, in which children who viewed an adult playing rough with a toy were more likely to play rough with the toy themselves than children that viewed a less violent role-model.

If someone gets off on illustrated porn depicting something messed up, but would have no desire to see experience the subject firsthand, that is perfectly ok.  But if a person thinks he/she needs to see such material in order to avoid seeking the real life version out, there is scientific literature to suggest that he/she is wrong.  Ignoring a depraved urge may not make it go away, but giving into it sure as hell won’t help.

My advice to curb impulses one deems disturbing (though as I am not a practicing therapist, I strongly encourage seeking a more qualified resource before actually implementing this) would be classical conditioning.  Have a friend (or preferably, a qualified therapist) show you some loli, and then immediately slap you in the face.

I have a lot of respect for you guys.  Normally, I think you’re pretty on top of ethical issues.  But I know a little about psychology, and what I know really suggests that you’re wrong on this one.

i have several observations

1. why did you make an alt account just to argue about this

2. you are citing a single study about anger and implying it also applies to virtually the opposite urge, but have not explained why this might be so. arguably sex drive is more like hunger: once sated, it goes away for a while, and ignoring it only makes it worse.

3. i’m not even sure how the bobo experiment is relevant. i don’t really condone jerking off to loli in front of children, no.

4. it’s fascinating to me that you picked up on the “loli” but not the guro. obviously there isn’t a significant problem with people acting out guro irl… yet it’s a modestly popular fetish among drawn art. by your catharsis argument, there should be at least some reports of like a dude fucking a girl’s intestines, yet none come to recent memory.

5. if you think a therapist is ever going to slap you in the face then you can’t know that much about psychology. you only have to get into week 2 of psych 101 to hear the phrase “classical conditioning”.

6. the graph i actually wanted to post was one that only showed the abrupt sharp decline, and noted that it was the year doom was released. it may be a coincidence, it may not, but it’s certainly interesting either way. the point was more that the loli catharsis argument is exactly the same as the video game violence argument: whether or not acting out a fantasized emotion makes one more likely to bring it over into reality.