Music Preferences and Their Relationship to Behaviors, Beliefs, and Attitudes toward Aggression.

The content of violence within media has significantly increased over the years and has been approached using a diverse empirical research representation. Within these empirical attempts, the area of music violence has only been approached through the utilization of randomized experiments and thereby presses the need to explore the alternative empirical methodologies. In the present study, musical preference among undergraduate and adolescents was explored in its relation to behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs toward aggression. Participants were required to respond to a music preference questionnaire and the Music Violence Assessment (MVA) and the Normative Beliefs about Aggression Measure (NOBAG). Results suggest that there are strong relationships between music preference and attitudes, behaviors, and acceptance of aggression. Results also indicate that there are significant differences between the endorsement of aggression by adolescents and undergraduates. Running head: Music Preference 3 Music Preferences and their Relationship to Behaviors, Beliefs, and Attitudes toward Aggression For over sixty years the issue of media violence has permeated its way into American political and societal interest (Anderson et al., 2003). One the most salient topic with respect to media violence is its impact on the beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of our youth. Numerous types of research have been conducted and still are being conducted to better understand the role media violence plays in regards to the socialization processes of youth and how these processes are possibly becoming distorted. Media violence has been shown to increase both aggressive behavior and thoughts in not only children but also adults (Anderson et al.). As the number of media outlets increase and broaden in their mediums it is important to view media not only in terms of entertainment, but to also attempt to define and identify any possible adverse implications that can be indirectly or directly related to it. In the past five decades both government and medical organizations have reported findings illustrating the strong relationship between viewing violent television and aggressive behavior (Anderson et al., 2003). Most recently, six medical and public health professional organizations held a Congressional Public Health Summit on July 26, 2000 and issued a Joint statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence on Children (Federal Trade Commission, 2000). The report concluded that entertainment violence can lead to aggressive behavior and there is overwhelming evidence to support a causal relationship between media violence and aggressive behavior in some children (Federal Trade Commission). It is important to understand that although there has been significant evidence shown in support of media violence and aggression it still has not been widely accepted as credible or relevant. Running head: Music Preference 4 Within the spectrum of media violence it is essential to comment on the role of violent musical lyrics and videos and their possible influences on individuals. Empirical research has linked violent music to increase aggressiveness in its consumers not only pertaining to physical violence but also attitudes and beliefs relating to aggression and perceptions of women (Anderson et al., 2003). Similarly to the accessibility of violent television, violent music and videos are easily attained by consumers and have been widely accepted as appropriate forms of entertainment. The profitability of the music industry has been on a steady incline for the past decades and its influence has saturated the environment of individuals. In regards to media violence it is important to distinguish between the different types of aggression that are measured and develop working definitions in order for clarification. Bushman and Anderson (2001) have defined aggression as any behavior that is directed towards another individual with the immediate intent to harm and that the individual whom is the target is trying to avoid it. In addition, verbal aggression is related to saying hurtful comments and indirect aggression refers to aggression utilized in order to hurt another person, but is done so outside the person’s awareness (Anderson et al., 2003). Physical aggression may range in terms of severity pertaining to less serious acts and evolving into more serious acts which carry a significant risk of injuring another person (Anderson et al.). Lastly, aggressive thoughts and emotions refer to the attitudes, beliefs and reactions that promote aggression and are related to aggressive behavior (Anderson et al.). Furthermore, it is important to consider the relationship between media violence and aggression and the issue of causality. Although media violence is a strong predictor of aggression, it alone cannot be held solely responsible for adverse behavior. Instead media violence should be viewed as one of the many potential factors that are utilized in order to shape Running head: Music Preference 5 aggressive behavior (Anderson et al., 2003). Moreover, when considering empirical research it is important to understand that small statistical effects can have larger societal consequences. Anderson et al. (2003) identified three reasons that make it sensible to acknowledge small statistical effects in regards to media violence. The first reason pertains to the issue of population and the fact that although a statistic might be undersized it still affects a large portion of the population. The second reason is related to the deleterious effect of media violence and how it will accumulate throughout the population due to learning. Finally the third reason pertains to the short lived effects of a single exposure and how these effects can add significantly to the amounts of violence and aggression in society because at any given time a large portion of the population is currently being exposed or has been exposed to violent media (Anderson et al.). Consequently it should be cautioned about making conclusions regarding statistic effect size without placing it into a broader population based context. Literature Review Content of Musical Violence Smith and Boyson (2000) examined the prevalence and context of physical aggression in music videos. They sampled over 236 hours of videos and examined 1,962 music videos to develop a composite week. Smith and Boyson utilized MTV, BET and VHI in order to develop their sample size. They found within MTV, BET and VH1 that a full 80% of their videos featured a single violent interaction, 17% featured 2 and 3% contained 3 or more. In addition they found that just under one third of violent interactions in music videos involved lethal violence that would result in serious physical harm in the real world. Also, Smith and Boyson found that within the music video genre, rap videos and heavy metal videos were significantly Running head: Music Preference 6 more likely to feature violence than were rock, R&B, adult contemporary and other miscellaneous videos. The study also found that 88% all violent music videos were presented in authentic or realistic context and that 12% of violent scenes contained humor. A full 79% of violent scenes featured no punishments and 17% of all violent videos featured the violence as being rewarded or positively reinforced. Additionally, close to three fourths of bad characters in the music videos were shown as never or rarely punished. Therefore it can be concluded that music videos do contain a high number of violent scenes and the violent scenes, which are featured, add contextual features to the programming and make it more attractive to the consumer. Overview of Empirical Research: Music Music videos and music lyrics contribute to the spectrum of media violence. Empirical studies pertaining to music have received less attention than in comparison with the work that has been completed in regards to television and movies. In addition, the amount of research has been limited to randomized experiments, and various correlational studies. Furthermore, research has not been explored in regards to possible cross-sectional influences between age and gender. Below are certain studies that have been conducted in order to illustrate the relationship between violent music and music videos with aggressive beliefs and attitudes. Randomized experiments: Examples Several studies have examined how music videos and lyrics affect an individual’s aggressive attitudes and beliefs. Recently Anderson, Carnagey, and Eubanks (2003) examined the effects of violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and hostile feelings. The randomized experiment utilized five experiments designed in order to avoid certain problems pertaining to directness and music genre encountered in previous work. Furthermore the study provided seven Running head: Music Preference 7 violent songs by seven artists and eight nonviolent songs by seven artists in order to make certain that results were not skewed due to one or two specific songs or artists. The consistent results from these experiments provide strong evidence that songs with violent lyrics increase aggression-related cognition (r= .21) and affect (r= .27). Johnson, Adams, Ashburn, and Reed (1995) studied the effects of music videos, which depicted images of sexually subordinate women on the acceptance of teen dating violence. African Americans were randomly assigned to either a nonviolent rap music video, which contained the aforementioned images, or a no-music video control condition. Results showed that young women demonstrated more accepting attitudes towards teen dating violence after being exposed to the video, which contained the sexual images. In another related study, Johnson, Jackson, and Gatto (1995) studied the effects of exposure to rap music on the attitudes and perceptions of young African American males. Results indicated that exposure to violent rap music videos increased the acceptance of vio