Exposure to media violence leads to aggression at least five ways. The first is imitation, or observational learning. Children imitate the actions of their parents, other children, and media heroes, especially when the action is rewarded and the child admires and identifies with the model. Turning off Second, media violence stimulates aggression by desensitizing children to the effects of violence. The more televised violence a child watches, the more acceptable aggressive behavior becomes for that child.
Justification is a third process by which media violence stimulates aggression.
A child who has behaved aggressively watches violent television shows to relieve guilt and justify the aggression. The child then feels less inhibited about aggressing again. This explains why children observe one kind of aggression on television and commit another kind of aggressive act afterward. Even an innocuous object that has been associated with aggression may later stimulate violence. Josephson demonstrated this effect in a study of schoolboy hockey players.