Violent Media Consumption Research Articles

The Impact of Media Violence, Narcissism and Sex on Reactive and Proactive Aggression in Adolescents: A One-Year Follow-Up Study.

While the impact of violent media on aggression is well established, less is known about how individual differences influence this relationship over time. This longitudinal study addresses that gap by examining whether narcissism and sex moderated the effect of violent media consumption and reactive and proactive aggression one year later. A sample of 2,284 adolescents from Cyprus (Mage = 16, SDage = 0.89, 49.5% female) participated in this study. Hierarchical regressions, controlling for baseline levels of aggression and age, revealed distinct patterns: violent media and sex predicted reactive aggression, but narcissism did not. In contrast, violent media, sex, and narcissism all predicted proactive aggression. Notably, sex moderated the link between violent media and reactive aggression, with females showing a steeper increase than males. Both sex and narcissism moderated the violent media-proactive aggression association, with males being affected regardless of narcissism, while only highly narcissistic females showed an increase in proactive aggression. These findings show the importance of considering individual differences, such as sex and narcissism, to better understand how violent media influences different functions of aggression.

The Relationship between Violent Media Consumption and Self-Reported Aggression in Adolescent Boys

The Relationship between Violent Media Consumption and Self-Reported Aggression in Adolescent Boys

Who beats their partner, and who beats their schoolmates? A comparison of teen dating and school physical violence perpetration in Lower Saxony, Germany.

Teen dating violence (TDV) and school violence (SV) are two major social problems in adolescence. Until recently, the antecedents of both TDV and SV have been analyzed largely independently of each other. This study analyses and compares the determinants of both TDV and SV, with a focus on physical violence. Based on a comprehensive survey of ninth‐grade adolescents at the average age of 15 years (N = 3,800) conducted in the German federal state of Lower Saxony, the findings showed that there is a significant but low correlation between both physical TDV and SV (r = 0.21). Concerning the determinants, we found that males carry out physical SV significantly more often, but physical TDV significantly less often than female respondents. Acquaintance with violent friends shows a stronger correlation with SV but not with TDV. Low self‐control and violent media consumption are determinants of both TDV and SV. Empathy as a protective factor and parental violence as another risk factor were found to be only weak and sometimes not significantly correlated with both TDV and SV.

The association of polyvictimization with violent ideations in late adolescence and early adulthood: A longitudinal study.

Violent ideations are increasingly recognized as an important psychological predictor for aggressive and violent behavior. However, little is known about the processes that contribute to violent ideations. This paper examines the extent to which polyvictimization triggers violent ideations in late adolescence and early adulthood, while also adjusting for dispositional and situational factors as well as prior violent ideations. Data came from three waves of the Zurich Project on the Social Development from Childhood into Adulthood (z-proso; n = 1465). Full-information maximum likelihood Tobit models were fitted to regress violent ideations experienced at ages 17 and 20 on multiple victimization experiences in the preceding 12 months while controlling for antecedent developmental risk factors and prior violent ideations. The results showed that violent ideations in late adolescence and early adulthood are influenced by violent thoughts, aggressive behavior, violent media consumption, moral neutralization of violence, and internalizing symptoms measured 2 years earlier. Experiences of polyvictimization significantly contributed to an increase in violent ideations both during late adolescence and in early adulthood. The exposure-response relationship between victimization and violent ideations did not significantly differ by sex. The findings are consistent with the notion that violent ideations are triggered by a retaliation-linked psychological mechanism that entails playing out other directed imaginary aggressive scenarios specifically in response to experiencing intentional harm-doing by others.

Aversive images cause less perceptual interference among violent video game players: evidence from emotion-induced blindness

ABSTRACTPrevious research has assessed links between violent video game playing, aggression, and desensitization in the moral domain, but here we find that frequent violent video game play additionally may be linked with differences in perceptual processing. In an emotion-induced blindness task – wherein graphic images typically outcompete and impair perception of targets – violent video game players suffered less perceptual disruption following aversive images than non-players did, despite no group difference following neutral images. This difference persisted when controlling for sex and other violent media consumption and despite no group differences in trait aggression, disgust propensity, or disgust sensitivity. Importantly, the recruitment method ensured that participants were not aware of links between the experiment and their videogame playing history. Although a causal relationship has yet to be established, the findings suggest that violent video game players might sometimes, literally see the world differently.

Prevalence and Correlates of Cyberbullying Perpetration. Findings from a German Representative Student Survey.

Based on a survey of 9512 ninth-grade students conducted in Lower Saxony in 2013, this paper examines the prevalence of cyberbullying perpetration and the correlates of this behavior. Binary logistic multilevel regression was used in order to analyze correlates of sexual and psychological cyberbully perpetration. In the preceding semester, 2.4% of the adolescents were perpetrators of psychological cyberbullying and 0.4% bullied someone online sexually. Low levels of empathy, frequent consumption of violent media, and being victims of aggressive online behaviors are correlated with the risk that a child will become a bully. Female adolescents are less likely than boys to engage in sexual cyberbullying perpetration, but they are more likely to engage in psychological cyberbullying perpetration. Only a small share of adolescents engage in sexual and psychological cyberbullying perpetration. Both behaviors differ in their correlates, however being a victim of aggressive online behaviors increase the risk for perpetration of both behaviors, respectively.

The Internet Effects on Sex Crime and Murder Evidence from the Broadband Internet Expansion in Germany

This paper studies the effects of the introduction of a new mass medium on criminal activity in Germany. The paper asks the question of whether high-speed internet leads to higher/lower sex crime offences and murder. I use unique German data on criminal offences and broadband internet measured at the municipality level to shed light on the question. In order to address endogeneity in broadband internet availability, I follow Falck et al. (2014) and exploit technical peculiarities at the regional level that determine the roll-out of high-speed internet. In contrast to findings for Norway (Bhuller et al., 2013), this paper documents a substitution effect of internet and child sex abuse and no effect on rape incidences. The effects on murder increase under the instrumental variable approach however remain insignificant. Overall, the estimated net effects might stem from indirect effects related to differences in reporting crime, a matching effect, and a direct effect of higher and more intensive exposure to extreme and violent media consumption. After investigating the potential channel, I do find some evidence in favor of a reporting effect suggesting that the direct consumption effect is even stronger. Further investigation of the development of illegal pornographic material suggests that the direct consumption channel does play a significant role in explaining the substitution effect.

An Exploratory Study of Violent Media Consumption and Aggression in Black College Students

One-hundred Black college students attending a historically Black college and university (HBCU) on the east coast of the United States participated in a study intended to explore and provide baseline information on the relationship between violent media consumption and aggression in Black college students. Results suggest that, consistent with college students and emerging adults in general, Black college students are heavy users of violent media and that violent media is related to aggression. This study makes an important contribution to the research literature by illuminating violent media consumption and the relationship between violent media consumption and aggression in a population that has been overlooked or understudied by previous media violence-aggression research.

Cutting through the fourth wall: The violence of home invasion in Michael Haneke’s Funny Games

Abstract The home is central to the western imaginary. It is of foundational importance to the shaping of identity. It is where we begin to construct the story of ourselves and where we first learn to navigate space. Yet, it is also a site of shadows and fear, of hidden desires and ambivalence. Within the cinematic home invasion genre, this is heightened by the presence of an antagonistic Other. They render all categorically interstitial. As with the Lacanian notion of extimité, the invading Other confuses interior and exterior boundaries. In Michael Haneke’s (1997 original and 2007 remake) Funny Games, this is further problematized by the lead antagonist’s movement between the diegetic world and that of the viewer. This article examines this fourth wall breaking and unpacks how the audience’s consumption of violent media is critiqued as the lines between the home of the film and that of the viewing audience become blurred.

Mediated and moderated effects of violent media consumption on youth violence

Violent media consumption is often thought to lead to more aggression and violence, especially in juveniles. Social cognitive theories assume a pivotal role for cognitive functions, such as normative beliefs, in the explanation of human behaviour (including violence) and see violent media as a possible and potent learning environment. Although many studies have analysed the relationship between violent media consumption and violence, only a few are longitudinal and apparently no study has analysed mediator effects of violence-approving normative beliefs with data from a Western country at more than two points in time. Some researchers assume that violent media consumption can only aggravate an already existing disposition for violence due to other experiences such as parental maltreatment (double-dose or intensifier effect, which is methodologically described as a moderator effect). Both assumptions – mediation and moderation – are tested with structural equation models using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a German panel study. Results show that interaction effects between parental behaviour and violent media consumption are surprisingly weak, whereas both influence the approval of violence to a remarkable extent and mediated by this eventually, to a smaller extent, violent behaviour.

Video Games Do Indeed Influence Children and Adolescents’ Aggression, Prosocial Behavior, and Academic Performance

Psychological scientists have long sought to determine the relative impact of environmental influences over development and behavior in comparison with the impact of personal, dispositional, or genetic influences. This has included significant interest in the role played by media in children’s development with a good deal of emphasis on how violent media spark and shape aggressive behavior in children and adolescents. Despite a variety of methodological weaknesses in his meta-analysis, Ferguson (2015, this issue) presents evidence to support the positive association between violent media consumption and a number of poor developmental outcomes. In this Commentary we discuss this meta-analytic work and how it fits into a broader understanding of human development.

Longitudinal Effects of Violent Media Usage on Aggressive Behavior—The Significance of Empathy

The aim of this study was to thoroughly investigate the link between violent media consumption and aggressive behavior. Using a large longitudinal student sample, the role of empathy as a possible mediator of this relationship was of special interest. Data were drawn from wave three to five of the Berlin Longitudinal Study Media, a four-year longitudinal control group study with 1207 school children. Participants completed measures of media usage (violent content of TV and computer games), aggressive behavior perpetration, and empathy. The average age of participants was 10.4 years at Time 1 and 12.4 years at Time 3. Half of the study sample was male (50%). Trivariate structural equation modeling using three measurement times were conducted for assessing the role of empathy as a mediator of the longitudinal relationship between the usage of violent media content and aggressive behavior. For male students empathic skills were shown to unfold a key mediating role between problematic media usage and aggressive behavior.

“Inflaming Your Neighbors”

The objective of this article is to consider and discuss existing research and theory concerning copycat problem behaviors and copycat offending and how this may be applicable to populations of firesetting children and adolescents. The primary databases used to search for literature were PsychInfo, Medline, and Eric. Google Scholar was used as an additional Internet search engine. While the primary focus was on literature published since 1990, earlier literature considered to be important was also included. Qualitative and quantitative studies suggest that consumption of violent media affects aggressive behaviors and supports the existence of a copycat effect within some offending populations. Existing literature suggests that processes such as desensitization, observational learning, priming, and alteration of scripts are involved in copycat behaviors and are mediated by individual, environmental, and media factors. While literature concerning firesetters has largely overlooked the possibility of a copycat effect, given their young age, and the often antisocial nature and individual and environmental problems associated with firesetters, they may be a population particularly vulnerable to such an effect. There is a need for consideration of the potential role of the media in copycat behaviors and for care to be taken in the way that the media reports events.

Predicting Violence: A Cross-National Study of United States and Mexican Young Adults

In this study, young adults from the United States (n = 198) and Mexico (n = 223) were surveyed regarding their violent behaviors over the past year, as well as variables related to trait aggression, empathy, individualist/collectivist views, and interest in viewing and consumption of violent media. Mexican participants reported having committed a modestly higher number of violent acts in the past 12 months than U.S. participants. Somewhat consistent with the catalyst model of antisocial behavior (Ferguson et al., 2008), for both U.S. and Mexican participants, male gender and trait aggression were the two primary predictors of violent behavior, with one exception. For Mexican participants, empathy significantly predicted (less) violent behavior. Curiously, higher levels of empathy were not associated with a reduction in violent acts among U.S. participants. Moreover, for both groups of participants, interest and pleasure in viewing violent media contributed to the prediction of violence, but exposure to (i.e., actual consumption of) violent media did not. Overall, results suggest that the array of variables predictive of violent behavior is more similar than dissimilar across national samples. Implications for the findings are provided.

The effects of variance in perceived message sensation value and optimum stimulation levels on consumer responses to ads promoting violent sports media

The current study adds to the sport marketing and media literature on the effect of individual differences (sensation seeking; SS) on the consumption of violent sport media. It extends the literature on SS and Perceived Message Sensation Value (PMSV) by exploring the role of image intensity in subjects' responses to print ads promoting an after-market sports media product (i.e., a sport highlights DVD) for a violent combative sport (Mixed Martial Arts; MMA). Image intensity (violence) is manipulated in the ad stimuli to present high- and low-PMSV advertisements. A personality trait (SS) and the order of ad stimuli presentation were included as moderators. A 2 (PMSV: high/low) × 2 (SS: high/low) × 2 (ad presentation order) mixed design involving US undergraduate students (N = 270) is employed to test the hypotheses. The results of this study generally support the PMSV main effect on ad responses, suggesting that a high-PMSV ad elicits higher arousal and a more favorable attitude toward the ad (AAd) than a low-PMSV ad. Meanwhile, the moderating role of SS received limited support. The study provides preliminary evidence that the sequence of exposure to media with varying levels of (sport) violence moderates the effects of PMSV on ad response.

Coming of Age at Bullworth Academy: Bully and Narratives of Youth Violence

The 1999 rampage at Columbine High School, and the high-profile school shootings that preceded it, dramatically heightened pre-existing cultural anxieties about the consumption of violent media in childhood. In particular, videogames received unprecedented public scrutiny, and even now the spectre of Columbine continues to hang over any discussion of violent videogames. When Rockstar Games, developer of the ultraviolent Grand Theft Auto series, announced Bully, a similarly styled game that would take place in a school, controversy predictably ensued. Rockstar made no effort to dispel this controversy, and might have actually encouraged it, but the game itself bears little relation to an archetypal school shooting. As a text, Bully represents a much different narrative of adolescence, one that questions the morality of adult institutions and problematizes the very idea of “growing up.” This essay compares and contrasts Bully with other narratives of youth violence, ranging from the popularly accepted telling of the Columbine shootings to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.

Mediennutzung von Kindern und Jugendlichen: Stellenwert für Schule, Familie und Freizeit

The 2005 KFN schools survey allows us to analyse two widely controversial hypotheses concerning the effects of media consumption: a) Excessive media consumption has a negative impact on school performance. b) There is a connection between the exposure to violent media content and violent behaviour. In our survey of 6,000 fourth graders, there was evidence not only of clear gender differences regarding access to and use of media equipment, but also of strong regional variance in media access and use, and of different patterns relative to parents' educational backgrounds. Following bivariate confirmation that extensive time watching television and playing computer games and intensive use of inappropriate media formats go hand in hand with poor school performance, the findings are further validated by means of a multivariate structural equation model. Using the data of 17.000 ninth graders, we show in the second part of this article how the consumption of violent media formats - especially the use of violent computer and video games - impacts on adolescent's violent behaviour. Finally, the article presents a number of conclusions that can be drawn from these findings.

Violent Media Consumption and the Recognition of Dynamic Facial Expressions

This study assessed the speed of recognition of facial emotional expressions (happy and angry) as a function of violent media consumption. Color photos of calm facial expressions morphed to either an angry or a happy facial expression. Participants were asked to make a speeded identification of the emotion (happiness or anger) during the morph. Results indicated that, independent of trait aggressiveness, participants high in violent media consumption responded slower to depictions of happiness and faster to depictions of anger than participants low in violent media consumption. Implications of these findings are discussed with respect to current models of aggressive behavior.

Reconsidering the Relationship between Sensation Seeking and Audience Preferences for Viewing Televised Sports

Some research suggests that males and females differ in terms of their enjoyment from viewing televised sports characterized as either violent combative (e.g., football and hockey), violent aggressive (e.g., basketball and soccer), or stylistic (e.g., figure skating and gymnastics) in nature. However, no theory-based explanation for the above differences has been supported. Zeckerman's (1994) theory of sensation seeking offers face validity in this context, as gender differences have been associated with the personality trait as has the consumption of violent media and contact sports (Krcmar & Green, 1999; Schroth, 1994). A snowball quota sample (n = 305) was employed to investigate adults' (18+) interest in viewing different types of sports telecasts (i.e., combative and stylistic). Four hypotheses were formulated based on the existing literature, with two of them being fully supported and a third receiving limited support. Among the key results, adult respondents' interests in viewing telecasts of combative or stylistic sports differed significantly by gender. In addition, reported interest in watching coverage of violent combative sports was positively related to sensation seeking for both sexes. Meanwhile, interest in viewing stylistic sports on television was a negative function of the trait for females. The theoretical and applied implications of the results are discussed, along with directions for future research in this area.