Hypotheses About the Effects of Media Violence

Cartharsis Symbolic violence (TV, music, film, games, etc.) allows us to purge ourselves of violent emotions and feelings through indirect or vicarious experience – Aristotle, “Poetics” (335 BCE) – Feshbach, “The Drive-Reducing Function of Fantasy Behavior” (1955)

Priming Symbolic violence can prime/facilitate thoughts related to hostility – Berkowitz et al. (U. of WI)

Modeling Symbolic violence – Teaches about violence – Desensitizes the audience member – Normalizes violence as a way of life, as a solution to personal and social problems – Provides a climate/environment for increased aggression – Bandura, Eron and Huesmann

Catalytic Most audience members are unaffected by symbolic violence, but there are some unstable individuals who can be triggered into imitative action by it “The Burning Bed,” “The Deer Hunter,” and anecdotal evidence

Mean World Syndrome Heavy viewers of symbolic violence think the world is a mean and scarey place, mistrust people, and find a need to protect themselves from these mean elements in society (by owning dogs and guns, installing security systems, staying at home) – George Gerbner Content analyses of media violence Survey research

Mean... Cultivation theory—the perception of the social world by heavy [TV] viewers will closely resemble the structure/content of the world of TV Mainstreaming—cultivation of common concepts of social reality among heavy viewers

Social Comparison/Preference for Violence Eron and Huesmann – “aggressive children feel happier and more justified if they believe they are not alone in their aggression, and viewing media violence makes them feel happier because it convinces them they are not alone.”

Third-Variable Theory Some third variable (NOT viewing TV violence) influences aggressive behavior – Comstock and Paik

Grossman “On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society” (1999) – Much like Wertham, he argued that “violent video games are transforming young people into ‘homemade sociopaths’ who kill reflexively. He introduced the term AVIDS (Acquired Violence Immune Deficiency syndrome)

Anderson & Ford “Affect of the game player: short-term effects of highly and mildly aggressive video games (1986) “

Design Subjects were placed in 1 of 3 groups – G1 played a high aggression game – G2 played a low aggression game – G3 control Subjects responded to a check-list assessing feeling

Results The researchers found short term negative effects for aggressive games – G1 showed more feelings of hostility than G2 – G2 showed more feelings of hostility than G3

Anderson & Dill “Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings and behavior in the laboratory and in life” (2000)

Study 1 Research question: Is there a correlation between the frequency with which subjects play video games and the frequency of aggressive, delinquent behavior? Results: The more often subjects played video games, the more frequently they exhibited aggressive, delinquent behavior Limitation: The study does not show causality

Study 2 Subjects were placed in one of two groups – G1 played a violent video game – G2 played a non-violent video game Subjects were placed in a situation and asked to respond to a stimulus faster that the opponent – The winner gets to blast the opponent with a loud noise – The winner determines how loud and how long to blast the opponent

Results – G1 subjects blasted the opponent longer and louder than G2 subjects

Tamborine (2001) His research found increased levels of hostility in subjects who played an aggressive video game more so than subjects who watched them play the game

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