People who watch violent television more likely to be aggressive

[Jazzy]

Parents warned to keep an eye on what their children are watching, as research finds people who watch violent television, films or video games are more likely to be aggressive.



People who watch violent television, films or video games are more likely to be aggressive, as they interpret the mildest of slights as provacation, researchers have found.



The International Society for Research on Aggression (IRSA) concluded that that evidence shows that media violence consumption can act as a trigger for aggressive thoughts or feelings already stored.



They have now warned parents to keep an eye on what their children are watching, telling them to use a you are what you eat approach.



In their report, based on a review of pre-existing research literature, the commission concluded that aside from being sources of imitation, violent images such as scenes in movies, games or even pictures in comic books act as triggers for activating aggressive thoughts and feelings already stored in memory.



If these aggressive thoughts and feelings are activated over and over again because of repeated exposure to media violence, they become chronically accessible, and therefore more likely to influence behaviour.



The commission concluded: One may also become more vigilant for hostility and aggression in the world, and therefore, begin to feel some ambiguous actions by others, such as being bumped in a crowded room, are deliberate acts of provocation.

Full article



Do you agree or disagree and why?

 

[Flurry]

Oh puh-lease. I listen to violent music, play some violent video games from time to time, and watch violent movies/tv shows from time to time. And I'm hardly aggressive.

 

[Evil Eye]

It strikes me as odd that there's never any mention of good old books in these researches...



I'll grant that young children may be more impressionable than adults and that they might lack critical thinking skills (though I suspect people just learn to hide that lack better as they age). However, you can't shelter them forever. They have to learn to cope sooner or later.

 

[Bluezone777]

The way I look at it is the violent media(books, movies, TV, etc.) brings out the violence in people that was already there in the first place. It might spur creativity in how they commit acts of violence but it doesn't make people become violent. We have to remember that violence existed long before any form of media around today even existed. We didn't need any of this stuff to become violent then so I doubt it would be the source of it today.



We spend so much time worrying over what they watch that we don't bother to be as concerned as to what we are teaching them whether it be through our actions or our inaction. That is what puts violence into people but that goes back to personal accountability.

 

[DrLeftover]

For proof that this happens all you need to do is look up all those sudden outbursts of slapstick physical comedy back in the 1930's through the fifties from people who watched too many of the original Three Stooges comedies.

 

[DrLeftover]

I'm sorry, I forgot to use the SARCASM tag on that post.



Maybe a Mod can go back and engage it for me.



thank you

 

[JetWing34]

I've played T-rated games and got violent from them, watched R-rated films without getting violent, listen to music and got violent, and even watched TV (mostly sports). I kind of agree with violence playing a role in media because that should probably mean that children learn that kind of violence. Time for your mommy and daddy with their neighborhood watch over you.

 

[Kahnai]

I can believe this for some people. Though not everyone who watches those kinds of shows. I state this because some people are truly simple minded and simple minded people tend to follow trends, and be more impressionable all around. Though non-simple minded people can think for themselves and in such cases my theory would not apply to them.

 

[Locke]

Nonsense, don't you remember reading all about that guy that dressed up as Pa on Little House on the Prairie and shot up a theater of people? Oh, that wasn't Pa?



What about the guy that thought he was Alf and set off a poison bomb in a crowded mall? Wait... that didn't happen, either?



Okay, well there was definitely that one time where a guy dressed up like Al Borland from Home Improvement and shot his friend while they were out hunting. Wait, you say that was a hunting accident?



Damn, maybe the OP has something after all.



-------



I got it! There's this one guy in my neighborhood that people call Pac-Man. His girlfriend's name is Sue.



Why do they call him Pac-Man? Well, he's always popping pills and eating Sue!