the.com/desensitization
The trick where the hundredth horror story moves you less than the first.
means The gradual process by which repeated exposure to something shocking, painful, or stimulating makes it provoke a weaker and weaker response.
from Built from 'sensitize' plus the reversing prefix 'de-', with roots in Latin 'sensus' (feeling, perception), from 'sentire', to feel. The word itself has a clinical pedigree — it entered English through psychology and medicine in the 20th century, first describing allergy treatments that dulled the body's reaction to a trigger through repeated, controlled doses, then borrowed by behavioral science to describe the mind doing the same thing to fear, violence, or grief.
- therapy use
- Exposure treatment pairs fear triggers with calm, on purpose
- media effect
- Repeated violence viewing numbs real-world emotional response
- neural basis
- Amygdala response literally shrinks with repeated exposure
- double edge
- Same mechanism heals phobias and breeds apathy