Further tests of the media violence–aggression link: Replication and extension of the 7 Nations Project with multiple Latinx samples.

Abstract

Numerous studies from various countries and cultural backgrounds have found a link between media violence consumption and aggressive behaviors and cognition. However, some failures to replicate these findings potentially suggest that some Latinx cultures may be relatively invulnerable to such harmful effects. To investigate this, media violence exposure and aggression data were collected from samples of predominantly Latinx communities in Brazil, Mexico, and Southwest Texas U.S., as well as from a Canadian sample for contrast. Replication and extension tests of hypotheses derived from the general aggression model and the 7 Nations Media Violence Project (Anderson et al., 2017) were conducted. This cross-sectional study (N = 862) revealed violent media exposure-to-aggression effect sizes with Latinx samples that are comparable to those from other ethnicities and countries in previous studies. This relation remained significant in statistical "destructive tests" that included other major risk factors for aggression in the model. The effect generalized across samples, sex, and type of aggression (physical, verbal, and relational). Public Policy Relevance StatementBy further demonstrating the generality of media violence effects on aggression, this research has implications for public policies that strengthen safeguards for consumers. For instance, warnings of harmful effects could appear in public service announcements, in digital literacy programs, and on the products themselves. In some countries, legal restrictions on children's and adolescent's access to such materials could be imposed.

Superhero media, aggression, and prosocialness: Relations in adults and gender's moderating role

“…Superhero media exposure positively correlated with all aggression dimensions, specially physical aggression and aggressive emotions. This information is in line with previous research using GAM, where consuming violent content influences an increase in trait aggression (Anderson, Suzuki, et al, 2017;Miles-Novelo et al, 2022): in general, continuous experiences of a situation (e.g., consuming superhero media) can lead to changes in the individual, which with time become stable (Anderson & Bushman, 2018). Superhero media can, for example, strengthen beliefs that justify violence, considering that these characters often use it to achieve their goals and that acts of violence are the most common negative theme in these works (Bauer et al, 2016;Santos et al, 2018).…”

“…Studies using GAM have consistently demonstrated that violent media (that depicts any form of aggression) is one of the risk factors for aggressive behavior, both directly after exposure (e.g., Bushman & Anderson, 2002; Santos et al, 2022) and increasing trait aggression (e.g., Anderson, Bushman, et al, 2017; Miles‐Novelo et al, 2022). However, when the focus is superhero media, mixed results are found.…”

Superheroes: The Prosocial Aggressors. A Systematic Literature Review

“…The main theoretical contribution of this systematic review is for investigations regarding media impacts on behavior and other psychosocial processes (e.g., General Aggression Model, General Learning Model): when we use a stimulus in an experiment or ask a participant about their consumption of certain types of media (e.g., violent), we assume that the effects of these media are unidirectional. Watching or playing violent entertainment media indeed does have impacts on this specific behavior (e.g., Anderson et al, 2017;Miles-Novelo et al, 2022).…”

College students’ exercise experience and aggression during COVID-19: A chain mediating model

“…Studies have shown that under the stress of the pandemic, the hostility and aggression of the public will increase ( Hammett et al, 2022 ; Wei et al, 2022 ). The general aggression model (GAM) also suggests that situational changes and individual cognitive factors will trigger aggressive behaviors by changing their internal states such as emotions and moods ( Abreu et al, 2021 ; Miles-Novelo et al, 2022 ). At the same time, the pandemic has brought people a sense of social adversity Zhang et al 2017 that represents the individual’s perceptual response to experiencing continuous or recurring negative social events ( Monahan et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Individuals with a positive mood always have a preference for pleasant experiences, explanations and emotional information, and can recall more pleasant materials from memory, while individuals with a negative mood do the opposite ( Niedenthal and Setterlund, 1994 ). According to the theory of Berkowitz (2003) and Miles-Novelo et al (2022) , the spread of negative mood through association networks is likely to stimulate individual aggressiveness.…”