Facial expressions of pre‐school children while watching televised violence

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Televised scenes portraying physical violence, cartoon violence, verbal violence, and non‐violence were shown to pre‐school children. The facial expressions of the children were videotaped while watching. The children's reactions were judged from the tape separately for each scene by raters not familiar with the films or with the children. Physical violence evoked most fear and worry. The children withdrew from scenes of verbal violence between adults, engaging in other activities. Reactions to the control scenes did not differ statistically from the totals of reactions to all the violent scenes. In reactions to the films, significant differences associated with social class, gender, and type of day care were found. Interviews supported the findings from the judgements concerning the facial expressions of emotion.