Media influences

• Violent films and TV

  • Laboratory and field experiments show those who watch violent scenes display more aggressive behaviour, aggressive thoughts, and aggressive emotions than those who do not
• Violent films and TV

  • Compared with children who viewed a non-violent film, 5- to 6-year-olds who watched a violent film were subsequently rated much higher on measures of physical aggression (Bjorkqvist, 1985)
• Longitudinal studies on violent films and TV


  1. Huesmann et al. (2003) studied children between the ages of 6 and 10, and then again 15 years later

  2. Habitual early exposure to TV violence was predictive of later adult aggression

  3. This relationship persisted even when the possible effects of socioeconomic status, intelligence and any differences in parenting styles were controlled
• Meta-analyses on violent media

  • Bushman and Huesmann (2006) found significant effect sizes for exposure to media violence on aggressive behaviours, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings and arousal levels
  • Short-term effects of violent media were greater for adults than for children
  • Long-term effects were greater for children than for adults
• Violent computer games


  • Interactive violence in video games has the potential to exert even more influence than TV violence, where the viewer plays a more passive role (Porter and Starcevic, 2007)
• Experimental studies on violent computer games

  1. Lab experiments have found short-term increases in hostile feelings and aggressive behaviour following violent game play compared to non-violent game play (Gentile and Stone, 2005)

  2. Anderson and Dill (2000) found that participants blasted their opponents with white noise for longer after playing a violent game, compared to those who played a slow-paced puzzle game
• Longitudinal studies on violent computer games

  1. Surveyed children at two points during the school year

  2. Children with higher exposure to violent video games became more verbally and physically aggressive and less prosocial (Anderson et al., 2007)
• Link between violent video games and aggression

  May be due to the competitive nature of the games, rather than any violence (Adachi and Willoughby, 2013)
• Meta-analysis by Greitemeyer and Mügge

  1. Carried out a meta-analysis of 98 studies, involving nearly 37,000 participants

  2. Interested in how playing violent video games influenced aggressive and prosocial behaviour as well as aggressive and prosocial cognitions and emotions
• Greitemeyer and Mügge found a small average effect size - violent video game use was linked to an increase in aggressive outcomes and a decrease in prosocial outcomes
• Prosocial games showed the opposite effect - they were linked to a reduction in aggressive behaviour and an increase in prosocial, cooperative behaviour