The Impact of Media Violence: An Overview of Theory and Research

Violence and Conflict Resolution Contemporary Perspectives Edited by Neelam Rathee Published by Global Vision Publishing House The Impact of Media Violence: An Overview of Theory and Research Neha Pandeya*, Shivani Sahdev** & Vanita Virmani*** One of the notable changes in our social environment since the late 20th century has been the saturation of our culture and daily lives by the mass media. In this new environment radio, television (TV), movies, video games, cell phones, computers and internet have assumed central roles in our children s daily lives. Research evidence has accumulated over the past half-century that exposure to violence on television, movies, and, most recently, in video games increases the risk of violent behaviour on the viewer s part, just as growing up in an environment filled with real violence increases the risk of violent behaviour. These globe-spanning media have not really introduced new psychological threats to our children; but they have made it much harder to protect youth from the threats, and have exposed many more of them to threats that only a few might have experienced before. Different people may have quite different things in mind when they think of media violence. Most researchers, however, have clear conceptions of what they mean by media violence and aggressive behaviour. In general, researchers define media violence as visual portrayals of acts of physical aggression by one human or human-like character against another. This definition has evolved as theories about the effects of media violence have evolved, and represents an attempt to describe the kind of violent media presentation that is most likely to teach the viewer to be more violent. To most researchers, aggressive behaviour refers to an act that is intended to injure or irritate another person. Aggression can be physical or nonphysical, and it includes many kinds of behaviour that do not seem to fit the commonly understood meaning of violence. * Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, Panjab University, Chandigarh. Email: neha_1aug83@yahoo.co.in ** Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, Panjab University, Chandigarh. *** Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, Panjab University, Chandigarh.

216 Violence and Conflict Resolution Theoretical Explanations for Media Violence Effects Psychological theories that explain why media violence is such a threat are now well established. Furthermore these theories also explain why the observation of violence in the real world - among family members, among peers and within the community - stimulates an aggressive behaviour in the observer. A substantial body of psychological theory has developed explaining the processes through which exposure to violence in the mass media could cause both short and long term increases in a child s aggressive and violent behaviour (Bandura, 1977; Berkowitz, 1993; Huesmann, 1988, 1998; Zillmann, 1979). Short-term Effects Most theorists would now agree that the short-term effects of exposure to media violence are mostly due to three main processes: 1) Priming, 2) Arousal and 3) Immediate mimicking of specific behaviours (Bushman & Huesmann, 2006; Huesmann & Kirwil, 2007) Priming - Priming is the process through which spreading activation in the brain s neural network from the locus representing an external observed stimulus excites another brain node representing a cognition, emotion, or behaviour. The external stimulus can be inherently linked to a cognition (e.g., the sight of a gun is inherently linked to the concept of aggression) (Berkowitz & LePage, 1967), or the external stimulus can be something inherently neutral such as a particular ethnic group (e.g., African-American) that has become linked in the past to certain beliefs or behaviours (e.g., welfare). The primed concepts make behaviours linked to them more likely. When media violence primes aggressive concepts, aggression is more likely. Zillmann & Weaver (1999) discuss how Bargh & his associates have extended the priming idea so that it can account not just for short term effects of aggression after media exposure, but long term effects as well (Bargh, 1984; Bargh, Lombardi & Higgins, 1988). Summarizing the notion of priming, Jo & Berkowitz (1994) commented on one result by stating that, It is as if the thought of the particular action had, to some degree, activated the motor programme linked to this action (p.48). The observation of stimuli that have been paired in the past with observed violence or that inherently suggest violence (e.g., weapons) activates memory traces for aggressive scripts, schemas, and beliefs sufficiently to make their utilization more probable (Berkowitz, 1993; Josephson, 1987). A provocation that follows a priming stimulus is more likely to stimulate aggression as a result of the priming. Although this effect is short-lived, the primed script, schema, or belief may have been acquired long ago and may have been acquired in a completely different context. Arousal - To the extent that mass media presentations arouse the observer, aggressive behaviour may also become more likely in the short run, for two

The Impact of Media Violence: An Overview of Theory and Research 217 possible reasons excitation transfer (Bryant & Zillmann, 1979) and general arousal (Geen & O Neal, 1967). First, a subsequent stimulus that arouses an emotion (e.g., a provocation arousing anger) may be perceived as more severe than it is because some of the emotional response stimulated by the media presentation is wrongly attributed to the provocation. For example, immediately after an exciting media presentation, such excitation transfer could cause more aggressive responses to provocation. Alternatively the increased general arousal stimulated by the media presentation may simply reach such a peak that inhibition of inappropriate responses is diminished, and dominant learned responses are displayed in social problem solving (e.g., direct instrumental aggression). In his theory of excitation transfer, Zillman (1991) advanced the notion that the arousal inducing properties of media violence were very important for understanding the intensity of emotional reactions that occur immediately after viewing. For example, when viewers became angry after exposure to a highly arousing violent depiction, this arousal could subsequently transfer to the anger and intensify it making aggressive behaviour more likely. Mimicry - The third short-term process, imitation of specific behaviours, can be viewed as a special case of the more general long-term process of observational learning (Huesmann, 2005). In recent years evidence has accumulated that young humans and primates have an innate tendency to mimic whoever they observe (Meltzoff & Moore, 2000). Observation of specific social behaviours around them increases the likelihood of children aping such behaviours. Specifically, as children observe violent behaviour they are prone to mimic it. The neurological process through which this happens is not completely understood, but it seems likely that mirror neurons that fire when either a behaviour is observed or when the same behaviour is acted out, play an important role (Rizzolati et al., 1996). Long-term effects Long-term content effects on the other hand, seem to be due to - 1) long lasting observational learning of cognitions and behaviours (i.e., imitation of behaviours); and 2) activation and desensitization of emotional processes. Observational learning - According to widely accepted social cognitive models, a person s social behaviour is controlled to a great extent by the interplay of the current situation with individuals emotional states; their schemas about the world, their normative beliefs about what is appropriate, and the scripts for social behaviour that they have learned (Huesmann, 1998). During early, middle, and late childhood, children encode in memory social scripts to guide behaviour though observation of family, peers, community, and mass media. Consequently observed behaviours are imitated long after they are observed (Rizzolati et al., 1996). During this period, children s social cognitive schemas

218 Violence and Conflict Resolution about the world around them also are elaborated. For example, extensive observation of violence has been shown to bias children s world schemas towards attributing hostility to others actions. Such attributions in turn increase the likelihood of children behaving aggressively (Dodge, 1985). As children mature further, normative beliefs about what social behaviours are appropriate become crystallized and begin to act as filters to limit inappropriate social behaviours (Huesmann & Guerra, 1997). These normative beliefs are influenced in part by children s observation of the behaviours of those around them including those observed in the mass media. Long-term relations have been ascribed mainly to acquisition through observational learning of three socialcognitive structures: schemas about a hostile world, scripts for social problem solving that focus on aggression, and normative beliefs that aggression is acceptable (Bushman & Huesmann, 2001; Huesmann, 1988, 1998). Building on the accumulating evidence that human and primate young have an innate tendency to imitate whomever they observe (Butterworth, 1999; Wyrwicka, 1996); these theories propose that very young children imitate almost any specific behaviour they see. Observation of specific aggressive behaviours around them increases children s likelihood of behaving in exactly that way (Bandura, 1977; Bandura, Ross & Ross, 1963). Proactive-instrumental aggressive behaviours in children 2 to 4 years old generally appear spontaneously (Tremblay, 2000), as may hostile temper tantrums. However, the observation of specific aggressive behaviours at that age leads to the acquisition of more coordinated aggressive scripts for social problem solving and counteracts environmental forces aimed at conditioning the child out of aggression. As the child grows older, the social scripts acquired through observation of family, peers, community, and the mass media become more complex, abstract, and automatic in their invocation (Huesmann, 1988). In addition, children s social cognitive schemas about the world around them begin to be elaborated. In particular, extensive observation of violence around them biases children s world schemas towards attributing hostility to others actions (Comstock & Paik, 1991; Gerbner et al., 1994). Such attributions in turn increase children s likelihood of behaving aggressively (Dodge, 1980; Dodge et al., 1995). As children mature further, normative beliefs about what social behaviours are appropriate become crystallized and begin to act as filters to limit inappropriate social behaviours (Huesmann & Guerra, 1997). Children s own behaviours influence the normative beliefs that develop, but so do the children s observations of the behaviours of those around them, including those observed in the mass media (Guerra et al., 1995; Huesmann, 1999; Huesmann et al., 1992). In summary, social-cognitive observational learning theory postulates long-term effects of exposure to violence through the influence of exposure on the development of aggressive problem-solving scripts, hostile attributional biases, and normative beliefs approving of aggression.

The Impact of Media Violence: An Overview of Theory and Research 219 Desensitization - Long-term socialization effects of the mass media are also quite likely increased by the way the mass media and video games affect emotions. Repeated exposures to emotionally activating media or video games can lead to habituation of certain natural emotional reactions. This process is called desensitization. Negative emotions experienced automatically by viewers in response to a particular violent or gory scene decline in intensity after many exposures (Huesmann et al., 2007). For example, increased heart rates, perspiration, and self-reports of discomfort often accompany exposure to blood and gore. However, with repeated exposures, this negative emotional response habituates, and the child becomes desensitized. The child can then think about and plan proactive aggressive acts without experiencing negative affect (Huesmann et al., 2007). Enactive Learning Observational learning and desensitization do not occur independently of other learning processes. Children are constantly being conditioned and reinforced to behave in certain ways, and this learning may occur during media interactions. For example, because players of violent video games are not just observers but also active participants in violent actions and are generally reinforced for using violence to gain desired goals, the effects on stimulating long term increases in violent behaviour should be even greater for video games than for TV, movies, or Internet displays of violence. At the same time, because some video games are played together by social groups (e.g. multi person games) and because individual games may often be played together by peers, more complex social conditioning processes may be involved that has not yet been empirically examined. These effects, including the effects of selection and involvement, need to be explored. It is important to recognize that these theoretical processes are not mutually exclusive. It is perfectly possible that observational learning, desensitization, priming, and excitation transfer all contributes to the stimulation of aggression by the observation of violence and that more aggressive child do like to watch more violence. However, there is one theory that is incompatible with all of these processes catharsis theory. Catharsis theory: One of the earliest theoretical formulations proposed to account for the relationship between exposure to media violence and aggressive behaviour was symbolic catharsis (Feshbach, 1955). The idea formulated by Fesbach was one that pleased media producers because if predicted that exposure to media violence would permit angry or frustrated viewers to purge their feelings such that after viewing was completed, they would be less likely to behave aggressively. The idea was that viewing media violence would permit viewers to engage in fantasy aggression, thus discharging their pent up hostility in a satisfactory way and reducing the need to carry out aggression in the behavioural realm. Feshbcah & Singer (1971) carried out a field experiment that

220 Violence and Conflict Resolution exposed institutionalized boys to a media diet of violent or non violent films and observed the extent to which boys subsequent behaviour was either aggressive or nonaggressive. The results seemed encouraging to the catharsis hypothesis because as predicted by the theory, the boys who watched the violent films behaved less aggressively than their counterparts who were exposed to nonviolent material. However, scholars came to understand these results in a context that was very different from the one that Fescbach & Singer suggested. The boys who watched the nonviolent films did not enjoy this type of media to the same extent as the boys assigned to watch violent films. Thus, the difference in likability quite apart from the differences in violent content may have been sufficient to produce higher levels of aggressive behaviour among the boys assigned to watch nonviolence. Ultimately, the failure to find any solid confirmations of the catharsis hypothesis, combined with relatively large number of studies that produced findings directly counter to this formulation, resulted in a virtual abandonment of this notion by the research community. Because the empirical evidence for any such negative relation is almost nonexistent (Huesmann et al., 1991; Paik & Comstock, 1994), catharsis theory seems untenable at this time. Key Empirical Studies Given this theoretical back ground, let us now examine the empirical research that indicates that childhood exposure to media violence has both short and long term effects in stimulating aggression and violence in the viewer. Violence in Television, Films, and Video Games The fact that most research on the impact of media violence on aggressive behaviour has focused on violence in fictional television, film and video games is not surprising, given the prominence of violent content in these media along with the prominence of these media in children s lives. Children in the United States spend an average of between 3 and 4 hours per day viewing television (Comstock & Paik, 1991). The best studies have shown that more than 60% of programs contain some violence, and about 40% of those contain heavy violence (Wilson et al., 1997). Children are also spending an increasingly large amount of time playing video games, most of which contain violence. Video game units are now present in 83% of homes with children (Roberts et al., 2005). In 2004, children spent 49 minutes per day playing video games, and on any given day, 52% of children aged 8 18 years play video games (Roberts et al., 2005). Video game use peaks during middle childhood, with an average of 65 minutes per day for 8 10-year-olds, and declines to 33 minutes per day for 15 18-yearolds (Roberts et al., 2005). Most of these games are violent. 94% of games rated (by the video game industry) as appropriate for teens are described as containing violence and ratings by independent researchers suggest that the real percentage may be even higher (Haninger & Thompson, 2004).

The Impact of Media Violence: An Overview of Theory and Research 221 Meta-Analysis Meta-analysis that average the effects observed in many studies provide the best overall estimates of the effects of media violence. Two particularly notable meta-analysis are those of Paik & Comstock (1994) and Anderson & Bushman (2001). The Paik and Comstock meta-analysis focused on violent TV and films whereas the Anderson and Bushman meta-analysis focused on violent video games. Paik and Comstock (1994) examined effect sizes from 217 studies published between 1957 and 1990. For the randomized experiments that they reviewed, these investigators found an average effect size (r =.38, N =432 independent tests of hypotheses) that was moderate to large compared with other public health effects. When the analysis was limited to experiments on physical violence against a person, the average r value was still.32 (N = 71 independent tests). This meta-analysis also examined cross-sectional and longitudinal field surveys published between 1957 and 1990. For these studies the authors found an average r value of.19 (N = 410 independent tests). When only those studies were used for which the dependent measure was actual physical aggression against another person (N = 200), the effect size remained unchanged. Finally, the average correlation of media violence exposure with engaging in criminal violence was.13. Anderson and Bushman (2001) conducted the key Meta analysis on the effects of violent video games. Their Meta analysis revealed effect sizes for violent video games ranging from.15 -.30. Specifically, playing violent video games was related to increases in aggressive behaviour (r =.27), aggressive affect (r =.19), aggressive cognitions (i.e., aggressive thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes; r =.27), and physiological arousal (r =.22) and was related to decreases in prosocial (helping) behaviour (r = -.27). However, Dill s & Dill s (1998) review of the literature on the effects of violent video games reveals that the exposure to these games does not increase aggressive behaviour, a finding consistent with other recent researches on this topic (Anderson &Dill, 2000; Sherry, 2001). Experiments Generally experiments have demonstrated that exposing people, especially children and youth to violent behaviour on film and TV increases the likelihood that they will behave aggressively immediately afterwards. In the typical paradigm, randomly selected individuals are shown either a violent or nonviolent short film or TV programme or asked to play a violent or nonviolent video game, and are then observed as they have the opportunity to aggress. For Children this generally means playing with other children in situations that might stimulate conflict; for adults it generally means participating in a competitive activity in which winning seems to involve inflicting pain on another person. Children in such experiments who see the violent film clip or play the violent game typically behave more aggressively immediately afterwards than those who view or play

222 Violence and Conflict Resolution the nonviolent ones (Bandura et al.,1963; Huesmann et al., 1992; Josephson, 1987). For example, Josephson (1987) randomly assigned 396 boys, 7 9 years old, to watch either a violent or a nonviolent film before they played a game of floor hockey in school. Observers who did not know which movie boys had seen recorded the number of times each boy physically attacked another boy during the game. Physical attack was defined to include hitting, elbowing, or shoving another player to the floor as well as tripping, kneeing and other assaultive behaviours that would be penalized in hockey. For some children the referees carried a walkie-talkie, a specific cue that had appeared in the violent film that was expected to remind the boys of the movie they had seen earlier. For boys rated by their teacher as frequently aggressive the combination of seeing a violent film and seeing the movie-associated cue stimulated significantly more assaultive behaviour than any other combination of film and cue. Parallel results have been found in randomized experiments for pre-schooler children who physically attack each other more often after watching violent videos and for older delinquent adolescents who get into more fights on days they see more violent films (Leyens et al., 1975). In a randomized experiment with violent video games, Irwin & Gross (1975) assessed physical aggression (e.g., hitting, shoving, pinching, kicking) between boys who had just played either a violent or a nonviolent video game. Those who had played the violent video game were more physically aggressive towards peers. Other randomized experiments have measured college students propensity to be physically aggressive after they had played (or not played) a violent video game. For example, Bartholow & Anderson (2002) found that male and female college students who had played a violent game subsequently delivered more than two and a half times as many high-intensity punishments to a peer as those who played a non-violent video game. Other experiments have shown that it is the violence in video games and not the excitement of playing them; that provokes and produces the increase in aggression (Anderson, 1997). In summary, experiments unambiguously show that viewing violent videos, films, cartoons, TV dramas or playing violent video games cause the risk to go up that the observing child will behave seriously aggressive towards others immediately afterwards. This is true of pre-schooler children, elementary school children, high school children, college students and adults. Those who view violent clips tend to behave more aggressively than those who view nonviolent clips; and they adopt beliefs that are more accepting of violence (Anderson et al., 2003). Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies Empirical cross sectional and longitudinal studies of youth behaving and watching or playing violent media in their natural environments do not test causation as well as experiments do, but they provide strong evidence that the

The Impact of Media Violence: An Overview of Theory and Research 223 causal processes demonstrated in experiments generalize to violence observed in the real world and have significant effects on real-world violent behaviour (Paik & Comstock, 1994). As reported in the discussion of meta analysis above, the great majority of competently done one-shot survey studies have shown that children who watch more media violence day in and day out behave more aggressively. The relationship is less strong than that observed in laboratory experiments but it is nonetheless large enough to be socially significant; the correlations obtained are usually are between.15 and.30. Moreover the relation is highly replicable even across researchers who disagree about the reasons for the relationship (Milavsky, 1982), and across countries (Huesmann et al., 1984). Complementing these one-time survey studies are the longitudinal real-world studies that have shown correlations over time from childhood viewing of media violence to later adolescent and adult aggressive behaviour (Huesmann & Eron,1986; Slater et al., 2003). These studies have shown that early habitual exposure to media violence in middle-childhood predicts increased aggressiveness 1 year, 3 years, 10 years, 15 years, and 22 years later in adulthood, even controlling for early aggressiveness. On the other hand, behaving aggressively in childhood is a much weaker predictor of higher subsequent viewing of violence when initial violence viewing is controlled, making it implausible that the correlation between aggression and violent media use was primarily due to aggressive children turning to watching more violence. As discussed below, the pattern of results suggests that the strongest contribution to the correlation is the stimulation of aggression from exposure to media violence, but that those behaving aggressively may also have a tendency to turn to watching more violence, leading to a downward spiral effect (Slater et al., 2003). One example is illustrative. In a study of children interviewed each year for 3 years as they moved through middle childhood, Huesmann et al. (1984, 1986) found increasing rates of aggression for both boys and girls who watched more television violence, even with controls for initial aggressiveness and many other background factors. Children who identified with the portrayed aggressor and those who perceived the violence as realistic were especially likely to show these observational learning effects. A 15-year follow-up of these children (Huesmann et al., 2003) demonstrated that those who habitually watched more TV violence in their middle-childhood years grew up to be more aggressive young adults. For example, among children who were in the upper quartile on violence viewing in middle childhood, 11% of the males had been convicted of a crime (compared with 3% for other males), 42% had pushed, grabbed, or shoved their spouse in the past year (compared with 22% of other males), and 69% had shoved a person when made angry in the past year (compared with 50% of other males). For females, 39% of the high-violence viewers had thrown something at their spouse in the past year (compared with 17% of the other females), and

224 Violence and Conflict Resolution 17% had punched, beaten, or choked another adult when angry in the past year (compared with 4% of the other females). These effects were not attributable to any of a large set of child and parent characteristics including demographic factors, intelligence, and parenting practices. Overall for both males and females the effect of middle-childhood violence viewing on young adult aggression was significant even when controlling for their initial aggression. In contrast, the effect of middle-childhood aggression on adult violence viewing when controlling for initial violence viewing was not significant, although it was positive. However, as researchers push for more longitudinal studies to help prove the relationship between violent video games and increased aggression, a 2005 study by Williams & Skoric failed to prove such link. The study involved testing a control group for changes in aggressive cognitions and behaviours from playing an on-line violent video game. Study results did not support the contentions that a violent game will cause significant increases in real-world aggression (William & Skoric, 2005). The Future of Research on the Effects of Media Violence As the study of media effects continues into the new millennium, it is apparent that the research on certain types of media violence will be prevalent in the literature. Recently, scholars have become interested in the impact of violent video games on aggressive behaviour. However, it is also clear that the literature in this area is quite sparse compared with the volumes of material available on TV and film violence. As the video games technology advances to permit more realistic depictions of violence and online contests between virtual strangers, researchers will undoubtedly take up the new gauntlet and try to study the effects of media violence with this new backdrop. The future also holds promise for more fundamental research on the reasons underlying viewers attraction to media violence. As Sparks & Sparks (2000) have noted, there is very little data to conclusively establish the fact that the programs containing media violence are generally preferred versions of the same programs that contain no violence. A complete understanding of the impact of media violence on viewers must include a much more comprehensive set of studies on the attraction of violent entertainment than is currently available in the literature. One additional theme that holds promise to increase understanding about the impact of media violence is the role of individual differences. Zillman & Weaver (1997) demonstrated that males who were high on psychoticism were more likely to be affected by media violence than males who were low on this variable. Similarly, Aluja-Fabregat & Toorubia-Beltri (1998) found that variables such as sensation seeking, neuroticism and psychoticism correlated positively with favourable ratings on violent cartoons. Future research would shed more light on the untouched dimensions. As technologies evolve rapidly, there is

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