The “trivialization of violence modifies the thresholds of what shocks”, points out a professor of social psychology

Speed ​​or real, are violence and humiliation an entertainment like the others? Similarly, Live death Monday August 18 of Raphaël Graven. Furthermore, better known by his name of Streameur, Jean Pormanove or “JP”, highlighted the dark side of the Kick streaming platform, Australian competitor of the Twitch giant.

Insulted. Therefore, violated by two companions for long months against the remuneration of Internet users, the 46 -year -old man did not succumb to any physical trauma, according to the first elements of the autopsy. However. Similarly, “This tragedy highlights A whole troubled and juicy sector of global digital activity “estimated Laurent Bègue-Shankland, professor of social psychology at Grenoble Alpes University, director of the House of Human Sciences Alpes (CNRS/UGA) and author of Psychology of good and evil (Odile Jacob, 2023, few).

Fictions for some, abuse of weakness for others … Similarly, These shocking content “trivialization violence modifies thresholds what brings together a large audience and question the relationship of our societies to brutality.

Franceinfo: The death of Jean Pormanove highlights the existence of a type of online content in which we are witnessing the humiliation of violence. Meanwhile, insulted, etc. Similarly, Does the popularity of these content surprise you?

Laurent Bègue-Shankland: Jean Pormanove totaled half a million subscribers. In addition, Behind this live death after 300 hours of streaming hide countless violence broadcast continuously by platforms and which. For example, are terribly reminiscent of a recent scene from dystopia Black Mirror. Moreover, These range from risky “challenges”. However, sometimes fatal “challenges” (pour a bucket of icy water on your head, abusively consume alcohol, swallow insects, engulf reposting …) to sequences of consented humiliation or sexual performance. Consequently, Nothing completely new. Nevertheless, but live streaming allows a freezing multiplication of what the trash reality TV Jackass had already invented “trivialization violence modifies thresholds what twenty-five years ago.

Who is the public of this type of video? Consequently, Can anyone be attracted to this staged cruelty?

A first mechanism well studied for fifty years by media specialists shows a selection effect: the platform attracts people. Therefore, in line with its content. For example. For example, people who consume violent content in movies or video games are much more frequently boys or young men with more appetite for aggression and levels of empathy below.

“The streaming platforms have become a mass spectacle place. Moreover, but let us think of the thirsty of the Colosseum, the medieval jousting grounds and other strike place. Tiktok did not invent public humiliation!”

Laurent Bègue-Shankland, professor of social psychology

in franceinfo

Human nature is fascinated by violence. Prehistoric caves include bloody clashes. And our cultural heritage is filled with massacres books. whether it is “trivialization violence modifies thresholds what the Bible or The iliadof Hell dante or Macbeth From Shakespeare … On screens and in the fictional field, violence dominates. Let’s take cinema: out of 800 superproductions released the last fifty years, 89 % contain violence, constantly increasing, according to encrypted estimates.

As the oliver Stone, expressed in his own way, “We have violence in us”. However. the consumption of violent fictions and the accomplice participation in the monetization of mistreatment through humiliating practices paid by spectators obviously cannot be put on the same level.

Precisely, what do spectators with this real violence staged for entertainment purposes? Emotions? Special sensations?

Spectators of violence in streaming participate in a limited event. in a public transgression show while remaining in their gamers chair, the latter being the privileged public of these platforms. The search for excitement and the atonement of boredom constitute its reasons.

At the University of Grenoble. “trivialization violence modifies thresholds what we observed that the practice of ultraviolent video games temporarily changed cardiac activity and raised stress. In the same vein. a laboratory study conducted in 2015 in the Netherlands revealed that the presence of coagulant factors increases in the veins of spectators of frightening films compared to those who watch a documentary: horror films “glasses” literally blood.

It is also necessary to mention voyeurism, a morbid curiosity for prohibited scenes. More than 15 million people have viewed the execution of journalist Daniel Pearl. murdered in Karachi by members of Al Qaeda in 2002. Today. death and forms of extreme physical violence remain experiences that we rarely face directly in many countries, while homicide mortality was 10 to 100 times more important in the Western area in the last two millennia. Hence, perhaps, increased curiosity for the spectacle of blood and violence.

To this must be added to this a collective “trivialization violence modifies thresholds what dimension, participation in a group of witness-orcitators, with its dealer effects. The fact that anyone can financially encourage self -destructive. humiliating behavior can establish a domination relationship that captivates vulnerable people in a morbid role.

In 2022, the philosopher Olivier Abel alerted in a book on “The trivialization of humiliation”. He describes a society in which “you have to be humiliating so as not to be humiliated”. Do you also find that humiliation is trivialized or is it a media magnifier effect?

Since shocking events capture more attention. generate likes and shares, they quickly aggregate the public and also modify the thresholds of what shocks, by a phenomenon of desensitization. Violent content produce a trivialization of violence and a form of desensitization.

“The victims also end up risking a form of indifference, even blame for lending themselves to humiliating practices.”

Laurent Bègue-Shankland. professor of social psychology “trivialization violence modifies thresholds what

in franceinfo

The fact that precarious, psychologically fragile or disabled people are also exposed to public humiliation against remuneration cannot remain unanswered. One way of refusing trivialization is undoubtedly to strengthen the means dedicated to digital regulatory authorities in order to contain. if necessary to sanction streaming operators and their deleterious flows. In his book devoted to humiliation. Olivier Abel precisely evokes the concept of decent society, that is to say which fights all mistreatment and promotes mutual consideration.

Does being exposed to such scenes influences the behavior of spectators? I particularly think of the youngest?

The majority of the available research focuses on the effect of violent fictions on the behavior of children. adolescents or young adults. For example. in a study, 8 -year -old children played a violent combat video game for 20 minutes, while others were having fun. They were then driven into “trivialization violence modifies thresholds what a game room where they were filmed without their knowledge for 15 minutes interacting with other children. while outdoor observers estimated various aspects of their behavior (did they kicks, pinched comrades, etc.). The results revealed that the children who played the fighting game committed twice as many aggressive acts as those. who had played a motorcycle race.

Another study consisted in questioning 430 children aged 9 to 11 as well as their comrades. their teachers, twice a year apart, and confirmed that those who played more violent video games during the first test attributed, a year later, more hostility to the other people they met, were more aggressive verbally and physically, and were less inclined to altruism.

Similarly. in the general population, when we recruit the participants of diversified profiles in the laboratory and examine their thoughts, emotions or conduct after viewing violent content in the following minutes, we see “trivialization violence modifies thresholds what an elevation of the aggression compared to a control group which has viewed scenes without violent content.

A recent synthesis of studies conducted on the effects of exposure to violent media in the United States confirms that seeing violent scenes does not have an effect of purgation of violence. contrary to what we sometimes hear. We observe the opposite of the old erroneous thesis of Catharsis: the emotional experience of violence. the exposure to violent models makes it more likely.