1. Effects of Violence/Aggression

2. There’s an assumption that violence affects the audience Research should be done to see if the assumption is true

3. Why is there violence in the media? It’s exciting It attracts attention It’s one way to fulfill a dramatic necessity

4. storytelling A problem upsets the balance of the story’s universe Protagonist tries to solve the problem, antagonist tries to prevent the problem being solved Protagonist finally does or says something that solves the problem The story is over

5. Characters in storytelling Each character wants something Each character wants something different This causes conflict

6. So why violence? Quickest and easiest way to show the conflict and solve it

8. What Does Media Violence Look Like?

10. Has the amount of violence on television increased or decreased over time?

13. NTVS Results: Context 24-28% of perpetrators are “good” characters 37-40% of perpetrators are “attractive” ~15% of violent scenes show blood & gore 71-75% of violent scenes do not have punishment of perpetrator 51-58% of violent incidents show no pain or harm to victim 39-43% of violent scenes involve humor

14. Is there a relationship between violence on television and real-life violent behavior?

15. Meta-analysis

16. Basic assumption about human behavior Much of it is learned Learning --the process of acquiring, through experience including observation, new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

17. Cognition thoughts, perspectives, and expectations - - remembering the past (whether the past is real or not), relating it to the present, and making predictions about the future.

18. Solving problems Trial and error Algorithms ◦ Step by step procedures to solve problems Heuristically ◦ Mental shortcuts to solve problems

19. Classical conditioning learning is about conditioning and association Effects of conditioning increased or decreased by reward or punishment an involuntary response that links stimuli and anticipates future events Reward versus punishment

20. Albert Bandura

22. Social Learning Theory How many of you are familiar with the Bobo doll study? Social Learning Theory (Bandura) Observational/Social Learning  Vicarious reinforcement  Bobo doll study

24. Priming Make pieces of your memory temporarily more accessible (Leonard Berkowitz 1984) Cats Grass Knife Dogs Blood Guns Cheese violence

25. Violence and priming study Watch violent OR non-violent clip Next, watch a cartoon ◦ Fuzzy vs clear Next, students were interviewed by researcher. ◦ Microphone vs walkie-talkie

26. Results Finally, everyone played hockey Conditional effect- Primed boys with high trait aggression ◦ Showed higher levels of aggression on the field  i.e. more hitting, insulting other players, etc.

27. The effect was greater when…. ◦ Students were frustrated by fuzzy cartoon ◦ And when they used a walkie-talkie in the interview

28. Modeling Bandura’s Social Learning/Cognitive Theory (1977/1986) ◦ Attention- pay attention to media ◦ Retention- retain the story ◦ Production- able to reproduce actions ◦ Reinforcement – positive reinforcement present

29. Results Kids imitated the people they saw on TV ◦ i.e. they performed similar acts of aggression toward the bobo doll Kids were more likely to perform similar acts of violence when model in the short film was rewarded Less likely to imitate when model was reprimanded

30. Cultivation The more time you spend with media, the more you think it is an accurate representation of the real world George Gerbner (1976)

31. Mean World Not that exposure to violence makes you violent, but it makes you afraid ◦ TV world is mean and violent ◦ Real world must be mean and violent  makes heavy viewers afraid (Mean World Syndrome)

32. Evidence of Cultivation Effects

33. Desensitization Decreases arousal Indifferent to real-life violence Less willing to help How does it work? ◦ Classical conditioning Outcome: Fear, lack of trust, less reaction to violence No one person associated with this theory, often credited to Gerbner 1976

35. Explanation If I were to ask you ◦ What percent of crime is violent? ◦ What’s the percent of violent crime consisting of murder?

36. Catharsis Viewing of violent media content helps to purge violent impulses Exposure to violent television should reduce aggression Almost all evidence is inconsistent with this theory

37. No one technique or theory has all the answers All hypotheses start with assumptions ◦ Scientific hypotheses start with assumptions about the world that can be empirically checked and falsified ◦ Social science hypotheses start with assumptions about people that usually can’t be empirically studied and are taken as axiomatic (they’re true because I think they’re true and can’t prove it one way or the other)

38. All are ways to examine the media; none are the final answer