With the rapid increase in technological advancements within our society, people of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds have implemented technology into their lifestyle in one way or another. It is common for a child to possess some sort of technological device accessible to the internet. Although there are many benefits to this increase in technology, it also comes with certain repercussions. One of the main issues society is facing is whether or not media violence affects the behavior of individuals in a negative manner. This controversy is especially concerning young children who are constantly learning and adapting to their environment. Because it is unethical to test and determine causation between media violence and violent behavior in children, it is nearly impossible to conduct research giving factual evidence linking these two things. Here, we examine the decorated opinions of Vanessa LoBue and Laura Stockdale who both believe there is a positive correlation between media violence and increased behavioral violence.
In Psychology Today’s article, “Violent Media and Aggressive Behavior in Children”,
author Vanessa LoBue addresses the issue of why violent media is causing an increase in violent behavior in children. In fact, she explains that there are multiple pieces of evidence linking these two things together leading all the way back to Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment (LoBue, 2018). She continues to back her claim with a more recent study done by Dillon and Bushman in 2017. In the study, children were either shown a movie with guns or a movie without guns and placed in a room with a hidden and empty 0.38-caliber handgun. The researchers were interested to see what the children would do if they found the handgun. Shockingly, “ the kids who watched the movie that contained gun footage were more likely to pull the trigger of the real gun” (Dillon and Bushman, 2017). Opposingly, they found “almost none of the kids who watched the movie clip without guns ever pulled the trigger” (Dillon and Bushman, 2017). Additionally, LoBue explains “that media violence won’t immediately give someone an aggressive child, however, it is certainly a start”. It is clear from this article published by Psychology Today that there is an ample amount of evidence linking media violence to aggressive behavior in children.
In Laura Stockdale’s article, "Cool, callous and in control: superior inhibitory control in frequent players of video games with violent content”, she discusses how media violence leads to aggressive behavior in individuals as well as a decreased state of empathy. In a broader sense, Stockdale wanted to see the influence of media violence on cognitive and emotional control. She used students from an urban university for her experiments. Using an online questionnaire, LoBue identified and invited thirty-two frequent players of graphically violent video games and thirty-two infrequent players of graphically violent video games to participate in an EEG study. “These participants were then given a 28-item questionnaire that assesses four distinct aspects of empathic responding: perspective taking, fantasy, empathetic concern, and personal distress”. Participants were also given an SST test where they were to identify fearful vs happy faces. After multiple experiments, Stockdale obtained several results. As predicted, results showed that frequent players had significantly lower empathic concern scores than infrequent players (F(1, 59)=7.61, p=0.008; infrequent players M = 28.55 SE = .78; frequent players M = 25.15, SE = .98” (Stockdale, 2017). She also found, “at low levels of empathy, frequent players had reduced P100 amplitudes compared to infrequent players” (Stockdale, 2017). Before her experiments, the P100 response is usually at a higher level with people who express a response to emotions. However, it was clear people who played violent video games had lower P100 levels than people who did not play violent video games as much. Overall, her conclusions supported her hypothesis of the correlation between video games and aggressive behavior in individuals.
Both of these articles clearly portray the correlation between media violence and aggression in individuals, especially children. However, it is important to note neither these studies nor past studies have shown direct causation between these two topics. Thus, we can come to a consensus on a specific conclusion. Reflecting and analyzing both of these articles can allow us to confidently say media violence is a risk factor and a promoter for aggressive behavior in individuals. Because children learn from their environments, we can also say that media violence may potentially cause aggressive behavior in children.
This controversial question within our society has floated around for years and will continue to do so until further research links direct causation between media violence and aggressive behavior in children.
Citations:
LoBue, V. (2018, January 8). Violent Media and Aggressive Behavior in Children. Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-baby-scientist/201801/violent-media-and-aggressive-behavior-in-children
Stockdale, Laura, et al. "Cool, Callous and in Control: Superior Inhibitory Control in Frequent
Players of Video Games with Violent Content." Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience,
vol 12, no. 12, April 2017, pp 1869-1880.
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