Media Violence and Aggressive Behavior: Research Review

Introduction: Mass Shootings and Media Violence

Profiling the criminal behavior of rampage perpetrators is one of the main areas of focus in the social science research community. Gender, mental health issues, social exclusion, genetic susceptibility or predisposition, and violent media are among the factors that guide researchers seeking to develop broader frameworks for understanding rampage violence. Over the past three decades, 78 cases of public mass shootings have been registered by the Congressional Research Service (2013). An FBI report indicated a rise in typical mass shootings, from an average of 6.4 incidents occurring between 2000 and 2007 to an average of 16.4 incidents between 2007 and 2013 (FBI, 2013). Most of these public mass shootings have been found to occur either at workplaces or at schools across the United States.

The proliferation of mass shootings over the past few decades has brought into both public and academic attention the issue of media consumption and its effects on people's behavior. Correlations have been drawn between media's continuous coverage of violent incidents and subsequent similar behavior from individuals (Signorielli, 2005). Other researchers have argued that such correlations have no real foundation and that scientific evidence does not support them (Freedman, 2002). The popularization of television led researchers in the late 1980s and following years to advance theories regarding the rise in violence. Between the late 1960s and the first half of the 1990s, over 425 scientific studies found that media's nonstop coverage of violent acts influenced public opinion and people's behavior (McCombs and Reynolds, 2009). In the United States, three analyses related to media's coverage of violent events were conducted between 1967 and 1990, depicting an average of 60 to 80 percent of all national TV broadcasting as violence-related programming. At this point, the social scientific community began to wonder about the implications of violent themes depicted in media and their effects on people. Researchers were trying to find whether there was a direct link between people's exposure to violent events presented on TV and subsequent violent behavior. To understand academic theories on media violence and its effects on people, it is therefore necessary to examine the elements that define the media and its relation to the public.

Television as a Learning Instrument and the Imitative Model

Media is a communicator. It is a medium of communication that has moved past its initial role of providing people with information and entertainment to become an integral part of everyone's lives. One of the most powerful media communicators is television. According to Gerbner et al. (1986), television has become an indispensable, almost humanized element for people everywhere. It communicates to large masses of individuals and is unique in that it makes greater use of imagery than any other media source. When information is passed visually rather than textually, the human brain absorbs it more easily and rapidly. The visual component is especially important in a society that has become, due to the prevalence of movies, videos, and visual advertising, deeply reliant on imagery. Graphics and montage are used in media to emphasize certain scenes, create dramatic effects, and reinforce the message being transmitted. When media transmits information, the brain absorbs and analyzes it — either consciously or subconsciously. Television thus becomes a learning instrument, and watching television becomes a means by which people build their beliefs and accept certain values.

Researchers have explained that the more people watch television, the more inclined they are to adopt certain behaviors. Subsequently, the more exposed people are to violent scenes on screen, the more likely it is that they adopt similar behavior (Paik and Comstock, 1994). When psychologists and sociologists connected the rise of violence in societies to the portrayal of violent incidents on TV, the idea emerged that the two phenomena could be related. The imitative model theory, which had served the social scientific community since 1896 when C. Lloyd Morgan first promulgated "imitation" as a behaviorist pattern, became a key reference point in academic circles. One of the most important figures to apply the imitative model to media violence was Albert Bandura. Bandura (1969) shared a common belief, prevalent in the 1960s, that stimuli produced by visual information can be accessed by individuals long after exposure and can affect the individual. Most imitative-model theorists believed that imitation occurs as a type of learning process in which television functions as the learning mechanism. One study in the 1960s showed that children exposed to violent models — whether in real life or on television, including film and cartoons — did indeed express aggressiveness upon exposure and when further challenged (Bandura et al., 1963). Three subject groups were formed: the first was put in contact with real-life aggressive models, the second was exposed to TV-mediated aggressive models, and the third was exposed to cartoon violence. The research concluded that aggressiveness depicted on film was the most influential mechanism in shaping subjects' behaviors.

Social Learning Theory and Short-Term Effects on Children

If people learn through exposure to certain types of information — including violent information — then constant and repeated exposure can influence and shape behavior. This is what so many researchers in the field have tried to demonstrate. Many of the theories advanced over the last decades asked whether watching violent behavior on TV could induce a similar pattern in viewers. Bandura's social learning theory, advanced in 1963, assumed that people learn through imitation by reenacting social behaviors observed in film into real life. For example, when individuals observe characters in a movie resolving interpersonal conflicts through physical aggression, they may learn or adopt a similar behavior when confronted with a comparable situation in real life. When individuals are repeatedly exposed to physical or verbal aggression as a conflict-management strategy, they may learn that violent and aggressive behavior is a common approach for solving conflicts. Some critics further suggest that this type of aggressive attitude comes to be perceived as an effective strategy (Bushman and Huesmann, 2001).

The social learning theory supposes that people learn from both direct experiences and by observing others, whether in real life or on screen. It is based on four relevant elements connected to cognitive and behavioral development. First, there is the observational or attentional element. Second, there is the adoption or memorization element, which integrates observed behavior into existing patterns. Third, there is the actual reenactment of the observed behavior. Fourth, there is the motivational element, which supposes that an individual is motivated by certain factors to pay attention to the behavior in the first place and to reproduce it subsequently.

Evidence suggesting the influence of violent media on behavior relies primarily on case studies and experiments in which subjects of different ages, genders, nationalities, and religions are assigned to various scenarios involving different types and doses of violence. In Bandura et al.'s study (1963), 48 boys and 48 girls formed three subject groups, with ages ranging from 35 to 69 months. Bjorkqvist's study (1985) assessed children in Finland between 5 and 6 years of age. His study also found that children exposed to violent film, as opposed to those exposed to non-violent film, were more inclined toward physical aggressiveness — demonstrated in the playroom by physical assault on other children and other aggressive behaviors such as pushing and elbowing. Both Bandura's and Bjorkqvist's studies indicated that there are immediate, short-term effects on children exposed to violent media. Although children are known to mimic behavior they observe in models such as parents and peers, the fact that they replicate violent behavior as seen on screen can influence their predisposition to harm others (Anderson et al., 2003).

The Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior in America concluded in 1992 that most research conducted in the previous thirty years confirmed the harmful effect of violent media. Three prevalent effects were identified: the direct effect, desensitization of the public, and the "mean world syndrome." The first effect assumed that adults and children who frequently watch violent scenes on TV can become more aggressive and develop violent behavioral characteristics they use to manage threatening situations. Desensitization claimed that children who watch a great deal of violence on television could become less sensitive to real-life violence, less empathic toward others' suffering, and more prone to accepting violence as normal. Lastly, the "mean world syndrome" — a term coined by Gerbner — posited that multiple and repeated exposure to violence in media, particularly television, can create the belief that the world is a dangerous and hostile place. Adults and children would thus begin to perceive the violent world seen on TV as an accurate reproduction of reality. All three effects could affect a single individual and act independently of each other.

In 1972, a study led by A. Huston Stein examined the effects of both violent and non-violent television programs. Approximately one hundred preschool children participated and were divided into three groups, each exposed to different types of TV shows. The first group watched Batman and Superman cartoons, the second watched Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, and the third watched children's programs that were neither violent nor carried any particular social message. Prior to the experiment, researchers observed all children during their daily routine at the playground to assess their baseline social behavior. The experiment lasted four weeks, during which children watched their designated program three days a week for half an hour. The study concluded that children who had watched Batman and Superman cartoons were more physically active, more excitable, and showed signs of increased aggressiveness — for example, picking fights with other children and exhibiting brutality toward toys. Children who had watched the prosocial program engaged more with other children and teachers, whereas children in the third group exhibited no notable behavioral change. The study was important because it highlighted the fact that media can have both negative and positive effects on children. However, it was also disputed because it presented only short-term results. To predict and observe whether media could influence adults who had watched a great deal of violent television during childhood, researchers subsequently adopted the longitudinal study approach.

Conclusion: Toward a Public Health Perspective

Although there seems to be a continuous debate over the accuracy of methodologies and scientific results, the substantial number of studies that exist is evidence in itself that correlations between media consumption and subsequent behavior have been demonstrated. The various theories that have been proposed and the numerous experiments that have been conducted all seem to suggest positive correlations. Indeed, far more studies indicate a negative media influence than deny it, and the few researchers who dispute these findings have largely relied on identifying flaws in existing methodologies rather than presenting alternative evidence — such as experimental or case studies showing little or no influence of violent media.

It is important, if any unanimous conclusion is to be reached, that not only researchers but also parents, family members, and teachers observe from an early age whether exposure to violent events causes children to reenact or adopt similar behavior. If it is widely accepted that external events can affect us in various ways, why do some researchers choose to deny the evidence in violent media findings? Several explanations have been offered. First, people who constitute the media — journalists, broadcasters, film directors — are less likely to accept that fictional violence has serious detrimental effects on audiences, as doing so would contradict their perceived identity and personal values. Second, there is the economic factor: movies, video games, and news broadcasts are all financially lucrative, and certain interests may motivate efforts to refute evidence of harm. Third, people who have grown up with violent media as a natural given — television, video games, movies, and more recently mobile technology — are less likely to believe that these can affect their behavior, because such instruments have been part of their lives as long as they can remember.

Huesmann and Taylor (2006) have argued that the effects of violent media represent a public health issue. As far as many researchers are concerned, the cross-sectional and experimental studies conducted in recent decades demonstrate that watching televised violence can be correlated with human aggressive behavior well beyond childhood. Perhaps the question is not whether it will ever be possible to demonstrate a link between media consumption and subsequent behavior, but whether people will ever be willing to accept the correlations that research has already produced.

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