CAMBRIDGE, MA—The desensitization of U.S. citizens to acts of brutal violence—an ongoing process by which Americans become increasingly inured to savagery and mayhem—is nearly complete, sociologists at Harvard’s Media Research Laboratory reported Monday.

And that was 25 years ago.

The human mind’s ability to be disturbed by such atrocities, the study found, will most likely vanish from the American psyche by the summer of 2001, if not sooner.