The Effects of the Motion Picture on the Mind and Morals of the Young

Abstract

There are three features of the motion picture, considered as a means of amusement, which must challenge the serious consideration of the student of ethics who reflects on the relation of this institution to the mental and moral welfare of the young. The first of these is the universality of the appeal which the motion picture makes. Available statistics would indicate that no less than 20,000,000 people attend motion-picture theaters every week. Many of these, of course, are repeaters. But even so, the number of distinct individuals who are reached and influenced by this form of amusement each week must run into the millions. Of this number a large percentage are children and adolescents. And no institution which contributes to the experience of so large a number of the members of society at the most impressionable period of their lives should remain unscrutinized by the moralist. A second feature of the motion picture which challenges the moralist's scrutiny is the fact that the channel through which its appeal is made is the eye rather than some other of the senses. Visual impressions are, for the majority of people, the most vivid and the most lasting. And the import of this consideration is 'accentuated by the circumstance that the visual impressions made on the mind of the spectator are always in terms of concrete imagery of the most detailed character. There is a vast psychological difference between hearing or reading an account of a murder, or an assault, or a passionate mutual attraction between members of the opposite sexes, and seeing