Question

Do you think that watching violence on television increases violence and aggression in viewers? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Watching violence on television and other forms of mass media is not the sole cause of aggressive behavior, but it can be one of many reasons. A lot of research has been conducted on the impact that visual depictions of violence might have on viewers and some studies have found a positive correlation. There are other factors combined with violence on TV that contribute to aggressive behavior. One of the most significant factors is the age of the viewer. Younger children tend to be more impressionable and as a result, can be influenced by what they see on TV. Research conducted by psychologists L. Rowell Huesmann, Leonard Eron and others in the 1980s found that children below the age of 8 who watched violence on television were more likely to be aggressive as teenagers.

The National Institute of Mental health lists the following effects of violent media on children

• Children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.
• Children may be more fearful of the world around them.
• Children may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others.

The same research by Howell and Eron listed both long-term and short-term effects of exposure to violent media.

Short-term effects include:

• Priming: 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 behavior.
• Arousal: The extent that mass media presentations arouse the observer, aggressive behavior may also become more likely in the short run for two possible reasons -- excitation transfer and general arousal
• Mimicry: Imitation of specific behaviors, can be viewed as a special case of the more general long-term process of observational learning.

Long-term effects include more lasting observational learning of cognitions and behaviors (i.e., imitation of behaviors), and activation and desensitization of emotional processes.