The Effects of Viewing Media Violence infographic description

The infographic is titled, Thinking Critically About: The Effects of Viewing Media Violence. The learning objective question 7-19 reads, what is the violence viewing effect?

In the first panel, three side-by-side illustrations show the effects of the introduction of TV and also of heavy exposure to media violence.

The first illustration shows a T V with the caption, Introduction of T V, 1957-1974. This is followed by a double-headed arrow, indicating a two-way relationship, then an image of a gravestone. The caption below the gravestone reads, Doubling of homicide rate in U.S. and Canada (Centerwall, 1989).

The second illustration shows a T V with the caption, Introduction of T V for White South Africans in 1975. This is followed by a double-headed arrow, indicating a two-way relationship, then an image of a gravestone. The caption below the gravestone reads, Near-doubling of homicide rate in South Africa (Centerwall, 1989).

The third illustration shows a T V screen from which a hooded man holding a bloody axe, a hand pointing a gun, and two people fighting are emerging. The caption reads, Heavy exposure to media violence for U.S. 9-11-year-olds. This is followed by a double-headed arrow, indicating a two-way relationship, then the text, Increased fighting, and more violent behavior later as teens (Boxer et al., 2009; Gentile et al., 2011; Gentile and Bushman, 2012).

Text below the three illustrations reads, BUT, CORRELATION DOES NOT EQUAL CAUSATION!

Experimental studies have also found that media violence viewing can cause aggression: Viewing violence (compared to entertaining nonviolence), right-facing arrow, participants react more cruelly when provoked. (Effect is strongest if the violent person is attractive, the violence seems justified and realistic, the act goes unpunished, and the viewer does not see pain or harm caused.)

In the second panel, the heading reads, what prompts the violence-viewing effect?

Two sections show imitation and desensitization, respectively.

The first section has the heading, 1. Imitation. The top of the section has an illustration that shows a group of children watching two people fighting on a TV and later imitating it. Text below reads, Watching violent cartoons, right-facing arrow, sevenfold increase in violent play (Boyatzis et al., 1995).

The bottom of the first section (still under the Imitation heading) shows a switched-off T V and a group of children sitting beside it reading and playing games. Text below reads, Limited exposure to violent programs, right-facing arrow, reduced aggressive behavior (Christakis et al., 2013).

The second section has the heading, Desensitization. The first illustration is of the earlier image of the axe-wielding man, the hand pointing a gun, and the two men fighting emerging from the screen. But, the image is replicated five times, indicating multiple views of these images. The second illustration is of a man looking at his phone with the earlier-described screen on the wall in front of him. Under these illustrations, the text reads, Prolonged exposure to violence, right-facing arrow, Viewers are later indifferent (desensitized) to violence on TV or in real life (Fanti et al., 2009; Jin et al., 2018; Rule and Ferguson, 1986).

The bottom of the second section (still under the Desensitization heading) has an illustration showing the man holding his phone, with one of his eyes looking at three T V screens with the image of a hand holding a gun and three large exes behind the gun. His other eye is focused on a woman holding crutches who has stumbled and fallen. A thought bubble from the man reads, meh. Text below reads, Adult males spent 3 evenings watching sexually violent movies. As a result, Viewers became progressively less bothered by the violence shown. Compared to a control group, they expressed less sympathy for domestic violence victims and rated victims’ injuries as less severe (Mullin and Linz, 1995).

Text below reads, violent moviegoers, right-facing arrow, less likely to help. Nonviolent movie goers right-facing arrow more likely to help (Bushman and Anderson, 2009).

Bulleted list at bottom reads,

1. APA Task Force on Violent Media (2015) found that the “research demonstrates a consistent relationship between violent video game use and increases in aggressive behavior, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive effect, and decreases in prosocial behavior, empathy, and sensitivity to aggression.”
2. Bullet item 2 text, American Academy of Pediatrics (2009) has advised pediatricians that “media violence can contribute to aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, nightmares, and fear of being harmed.”

Critics suggest that these statements may ignore some weakness in media violence research, such as reliability and the size of the effect. They also note that some places, such as Japan, have similarly violent but much less violent behavior (Elson et all, 2019).