Film Violence and Verbal Aggression: A Naturalistic Study

VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study by Sebastian et al. was to examine: (1) the extent of verbal aggression expressed after having watched violent movies; (2) whether or not the results of laboratory experiments on the relationship between viewing film violence and subsequent observer aggression can be generalized to real-life situations; (3) the duration of aggression-facilitating effects of media violence, and (4) the effect of multiple exposure to media violence. METHODOLOGY: This was an experimental static group comparison of 74 males, ages 12-19 years, who were randomly assigned to four cottages at a minimum security penal institution for juveniles. An additional 15 participants lived in the cottages, but were excluded from the study (2 refused, 5 did not cooperate, and the data was lost on the last 8). To ensure comparability of the boys, analysis of their characteristics was carried out. The boys in each of the four cottages were shown commercially available movies: one group saw 5 violent movies, one each night of the week, another saw 5 non-violent movies, one each night of the week, another saw 1 violent movie, and the last group saw 1 non-violent movie. After viewing each movie, the boys rated its content. The next day, after all boys had seen the movies, a trained confederate peer criticized each boy as they put together a puzzle while a trained judge observed the participant's response. The confederate peer either mildly or severely harassed and criticized the boy, depending on the random assignment of the boy to the exposure. Each boy experienced each distraction condition. The level of verbal aggression expressed after watching the movie(s), with and without reinforcing verbal aggression towards the subjects, was measured. The boys perceived the aggressive movies as significantly more violent than the non-aggressive movies (all t-tests were two-tailed and significant at least at the .02 level). The objective analysis of the aggressive content of the movies was also statistically significant for the 5 movie case (t8=4. 59, p FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: (1) Boys who saw the aggressive movie(s) expressed significantly more intense verbal aggression than those who viewed non-aggressive movie(s) (F1,66=3. 72, p=0. 058). (2) Boys who were severely harassed and criticized were more verbally aggressive than those who were mildly distracted (F1,66=34. 95, p AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS: Future research on the effects of multiple exposures would have to control for the viewer's already substantial media exposure and pay attention to the similarity of stimuli and time between exposures. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) KW - Media Violence Effects KW - Film Violence KW - Exposure to Violence KW - Juvenile Male KW - Juvenile Inmate KW - Juvenile Aggression KW - Early Adolescence KW - Late Adolescence KW - Inmate Aggression KW - Inmate Studies KW - Incarcerated KW - Juvenile Correctional Institution KW - Aggression Causes KW - Verbal Aggression KW - Male Aggression KW - Male Inmate Language: en