Effects of Television Violence on Expectations of Other's Aggression
After exposure to either an aggressive or nonaggressive television program, third and fifth grade boys and girls heard descriptions of nine conflict situations and were asked (a) to predict how the average child would react in such a situation and (b) to indicate the behavior they believed to be most morally correct. As predicted, children who had seen the aggressive film were significantly more likely to choose aggressive responses as being normative than were children exposed to the control film. Beliefs about the moral correctness of aggression, however, were not reliably influenced by film condition. Older children were found to regard aggressive responses to conflict as more commonplace than did younger children, and in accordance with sex-role stereotypes, males more frequently than females suggested that aggressive reactions were morally correct.
in list: Social Psychology Research
more frompsp.sagepub.com
Violent Video Games and Hostile Expectations: A Test of the General Aggression Model
Research conducted over several decades has shown that violent media increase aggression. It is now time to move beyond the question of whether violent media increase aggression to answering the question why violent media increase aggression. The present research tested whether violent video games produce a hostile expectation bias—the tendency to expect others to react to potential conflicts with aggression. Participants (N = 224) played either a violent or nonviolent video game. Next, they read ambiguous story stems about potential interpersonal conflicts. They were asked what the main character will do, say, think, and feel as the story continues. People who played a violent video game described the main character as behaving more aggressively, thinking more aggressive thoughts, and feeling more angry than did people who played a nonviolent video game. These results are consistent with the General Aggression Model.
in list: Social Psychology Research
more frompsp.sagepub.com
Violent Films and Prosocial Behavior
This study attempted to further test the excitation transfer theory's applicability to prosocial behavior. Forty-two female college students were treated in either a positive or neutral manner by a confederate and then watched a violent, arousing film, a neutral, nonarousing film, or no film. Following this, participants were given the opportunity both to aggress against and reward the confederate. As predicted, individuals treated in a positive manner and shown the violent film were more generous in administering reward to the confederate than were similarly treated individuals exposed to the neutral film or no film.
in list: Social Psychology Research
more frompsp.sagepub.com
Priming Effects of Media Violence on the Accessibility of Aggressive Constructs in Memory
Two experiments tested the hypothesis that violent media make aggressive constructs more accessible to viewers. In Experiment 1, participants made free associations to homonyms, with one meaning more aggressive than the other; and to nonaggressive words after viewing a violent or nonviolent video. Participants who saw the violent video listed more aggressive associations to both types of words. In Experiment 2, participants completed a lexical-decision task after viewing a violent or nonviolent video. Participants pressed one key if a string of letters was an English word, or another key if it was a nonword. Half of the words were aggressive and half were nonaggressive. Participants who saw the violent video had faster reaction times to aggressive words. Videotape content did not influence reaction times to nonaggressive words. These results suggest that violent media prime cognitive-associative networks related to aggression.
in list: Social Psychology Research
more frompsp.sagepub.com
Media violence and the American public: Scientific facts versus media misinformation
Fifty years of news coverage on the link between media violence and aggression have left the U.S. public confused. Typical news articles pit researchers and child advocates against entertainment industry representatives, frequently giving equal weight to the arguments of both sides. A comparison of news reports and scientific knowledge about media effects reveals a disturbing discontinuity: Over the past 50 years, the average news report has changed from claims of a weak link to a moderate link and then back to a weak link between media violence and aggression. However, since 1975, the scientific confidence and statistical magnitude of this link has been clearly positive and has consistently increased over time. Reasons for this discontinuity between news reports and the actual state of scientific knowledge include the vested interests of the news reporting, and the failure of the research community to effectively argue the scientific case.
in list: Social Psychology Research
more fromwww-ca3.csa.com
Media violence: Miscast causality
in list: Social Psychology Research
more fromwww-ca3.csa.com
Race, Media, and Violence: Differential Racial Effects of Exposure to Violent News Stories - Basic and Applied Social Psychology
An experiment was conducted to assess whether effects of exposure to violent media information would vary as a function of target person race. Participants were exposed to violent or nonviolent media information and subsequently made judgments of a violent act committed by a Black, White, or race unspecified man. The most relevant findings indicated that perceptions did not vary as a function of violence exposure for the White and race unspecified defendant. On the other hand, for Black defendants, participants exposed to violent information made attributions of his behavior that were more dispositional than those exposed to nonviolent information. The findings also indicated that when compared to men, women tended to make attributions of defendant behavior that were more dispositional. Finally, when compared to attributions of the White defendant's behavior, attributions of the Black defendant were more dispositional.
in list: Social Psychology Research
more fromwww.informaworld.com.er.lib.ksu.edu
Notation: * = Private bookmark and comment|… = Clipping [?] | … = Public highlight [?]




