Killology

As in all things, let's start with the wikipedia:

The Killology Research Group is an advocacy group devoted to research into the idea that first-person shooter games can lead to violent behavior in people. Specifically, the founder (an ex-military man) believes that FPS games are "murder simulators" that desenstitize players to violent acts. |link|

Fair enough. Next, from the group's website:

KILLOLOGY, (n): The scholarly study of the destructive act, just as sexology is the scholarly study of the procreative act. In particular, killology focuses on the reactions of healthy people in killing circumstances (such as police and military in combat) and the factors that enable and restrain killing in these situations. This field of study was pioneered by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, in his Pulitzer-nominated book, On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society.

KILLOLOGY Research Group consultants are human behavior studies specialists with credentials in psychology, educational psychology, training, military history, and modern warfare. Each project is unique, and each project is customized to meet the needs of the client. Col. David Grossman, Director, personally contributes to and supervises all projects.

KILLOLOGY Research Group examines how culture and society change when one human being kills another. The lives of individuals and families in our society can be literally transformed and the world can become a safer place through education about the causes and impacts of violent behavior. |link|

Next up, let's see how the good Colonel puts this to work. Check out this passage from Blackwater:

At the conference, retired Army Lt. Col. David Grossman, author of the book On Killing and founder of the Killology Research Group, addressed participants in a hotel ballroom, pacing around with a microphone. He spoke of a "new Dark Age" full of Al Qaeda terrorism and school shootings. "The bad guys are coming with rifles and body armor!" he declared. "They will destroy our way of life in one day!" The world, Grossman said, is full of sheep and it was the duty of warriors -- the kind of men assembled at the Blackwater conference -- to protect them from the wolves. "Embrace the warrior spirit!" he shouted. "We need warriors who embrace the dirty, nasty four-letter word kill!" |p. 152|

And, lastly, a brief excerpt from the colonel's latest work of science fiction:

Private Jarvis had been mauled by an ape in the last battle. He'd recovered enough to be released for duty. Now here he was again, with musket balls bouncing around him and wood splinters flying into his exposed flesh. Sergeant (oops, Lieutenant) Broadax might enjoy this stuff, but he'd never been so miserable in his life. At least the apes didn't shoot at you. Once again his bladder control was failing and "leg sweat" was darkening his trousers. He felt his bowels loosen and it was all he could do to maintain control of his sphincter.

In training they'd been told about a survey of combat veterans in World War II, back on Old Earth in the twentieth century. About half the veterans who saw intense frontlineactionadmitted to wetting themselves in combat. In the same survey almost a quarter of these combat veterans admitted to messing themselves. Jarvis was one of many combatants since then whose cynical response to that data was, "Hell, all that proves is that the rest were liars." |link|