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WORLD SCIENCE
"Long Before It's In the Papers"
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'Indirect
aggression'
in
media
may
influence
us
August
16, 2004
Special to World
Science
Intrigue.
Betrayal.
They
have
been
dominant
themes
of
theater
and
drama
throughout
history,
but
is
this
sort
of
entertainment
bad
for
us?
While
many
researchers
have
accepted
for
awhile
that
out-and-out
violence
in
the
media
encourages
more
of
the
same
among
viewers,
they're
now
finding
that
softer
forms
of
aggression
may
have
parallel
effects.
Researchers in England played a short film for students, a story featuring scenes of "indirect" or behind-the-back aggression such as secretive destruction of property and spreading of nasty rumors. Things happen to turn out well for the aggressor in the film -- as is often the case on television, the authors claim.
Students who watched the video, compared with those who viewed a non-aggression control video, were more likely to perpetrate similar "indirect aggression" shortly afterward, the researchers found.
The conclusion was based on students' responses on a subsequent questionnaire in which they were asked to evaluate one of the experimenters, ostensibly to help decide whether he would be re-hired or get a raise. Watchers of the vicious videotape were harsher on the experimenter.
"Viewing violence in the media is not the only form of aggression on television that can influence a viewer's behavior," conclude the authors of the study, published in the July issue of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
—EJL
WORLD SCIENCE
"Long
Before It's In the Papers"