Explanations of Media Influences Flashcards
Desensitisation
Assumes that under normal conditions, anxiety about violence inhibits its use. Media violence may lead to aggressive behaviour by removing this anxiety; children who watch more violence on TV see violence as more acceptable. Frequent viewing of TV violence may cause children to be less anxious. Someone who becomes desensitised to violence perceives it as normal and are therefore more likely to behave aggressively. Desensitisation takes a long time, it is the result of repeated exposure to violent films and games.
Desensitisation Research
- Linz found a reduction in physiological arousal (heart rate and skin conductance response) when exposed to real violence after being repeatedly exposed to media violence, which is an indicator of desensitisation. Other indications are a change in cognitive and affective reactions that would otherwise have occurred in the absence of desensitisation.
- Mullin & Linz found that desensitised individuals are less likely to notice violence in real life, they feel less sympathy for victims of violence and have less negative attitudes towards violence, all of which increase the likelihood of aggressive behaviour.
Evaluating Desensitisation
Carnagey- evidence of violent games producing physiological desensitisation. Participants played either a violent or non violent game for 20 mins, and then watched a 10 min clip of real life violence after. Their heart rate and skin conductance was monitored throughout the experiment. He found that violent game players had lower physiological responses whilst watching the film.
Desensitisation can be adaptive for individuals. For example, for troops, desensitisation to the horrors of combat makes individuals more effective in their role. However, desensitisation to violent stimuli may be detrimental for the individual and society. Bushman and Anderson suggest that there are worrying consequences when individuals are desensitised to violence after exposure to violent media. Violent media exposure can reduce helping behaviour that may be offered to others in distress. People become comfortably numb to the pain and suffering of others and are less helpful.
Disinhibition
Exposure to media violence legitimises the use of violence in real life because it undermines the social sanctions that usually inhibit such behaviour. Ideas of acceptability of harming others are acquired through social transmission, including exposure to moral messages on TV and in other media. The justification in the media is one of the ways children can infer standards of acceptable behaviour. Watching or playing violent media may change these standards of what is considered acceptable. Disinhibition may have both immediate and long term effects:
Short-term effect: violence in games or on TV triggers physiological arousal, leads to probability of behaving aggressively, inhibitions temporarily suppressed by drive.
Long-term effect: prolonged exposure gives message that violence is a normal part of everyday life, when justified or unpunished on TV the viewers guilt or concern about consequences is also reduced-less inhibited.
Evaluating Disinhibition
Collins - younger children more likely to be affected, more likely to be drawn into high action violent episodes without considering motive/consequences.
Heath - children in households with strong norms against violence are unlikely to experience sufficient disinhibition to exhibit aggression. Stronger in families where children experience more physical punishment.
Cognitive Priming
Berkowitz - temporary increase in accessibility of thoughts/ideas, constant exposure to media violence activates thoughts about violence which activate other aggressive thoughts through their association in memory pathways. Violent film can temporarily lower threshold for activation of these thoughts, making them shortly accessible. The more accessible a thought, more likely it is used to interpret social info. Frequent activation through prolonged exposure may result in a lowered activation threshold for these aggressive thoughts, allowing them to be more readily accessed and used to process and interpret info.
Zelli - priming by aggressive stimuli influenced individuals to make hostile attributions about the behaviour of others, increases likelihood of aggressive behaviour.
Evaluating Cognitive Priming
Bushman - study of over 200 male and female undergraduates. Ppts watched either 15min segment of a violent film, or non-violent film. Those who watched violent film had quicker reaction times to aggressive words than those who watched non-violent film. Video content did not influence reaction times. This shows support, scenes of violence prime aggressive thoughts in memory.
