Violent Movies and Severe Acts of Violence: Sensationalism Versus Science

Abstract

Violent media has often been blamed for severe violent acts. Following recent findings that violence in movies has increased substantially over the last few decades, this research examined whether such increases were related to trends in severe acts of violence. Annual rates of movie violence and gun violence in movies were compared to homicide and aggravated assault rates between the years of 1960 and 2012. Time series analyses found that violent films were negatively, although nonsignificantly, related to homicides and aggravated assaults. These nonsignificant negative relations remained present even after controlling for various extraneous variables. Results suggest that caution is warranted when generalizing violent media research, conducted primarily in laboratories and via questionnaires, to societal trends in violent behavior.

Learning to blast a way into crime, or just good clean fun? Examining aggressive play with toy weapons and its relation with crime

“…We also suggest that policymakers, scholars and child advocates exert great caution in asserting conclusive links between war theme toys and behavioural problems, as evidence does not support such contentions. The apparent absence of association between playing with war toys and later real aggression is in line with recent data questioning the long‐term harmfulness of similarly themed television (Schwartz & Beaver, ), movies (Markey et al, ) or video games (Przybylski & Mishkin, ). Attraction to some aggressive themes in play and media may be developmentally normal (Olson, ), and restricting such play may have more detrimental impact than positive.…”

Lessons From Markey et al. (2015) and Bushman et al. (2015): Sensationalism and Integrity in Media Research

“…The examination undertaken here and in the more comprehensive analysis originally published (Markey et al, ) finds no grounds for even a hypothesis that increased depiction of violence and guns in movies over time stimulates young people to real homicide and shootings. Any other random factor, such as the average length of movies, proves just as invalid a predictor when tested.…”

“…We thank Bushman, Romer, and Jamieson () for taking the time to comment on our article Violent Movies and Severe Acts of Violence : Sensationalism Versus Science (Markey, French, & Markey, ). We believe an open dialogue is the best way to address the differences that exist between scientists on both sides of the debate concerning the role of the media in real‐world violence.…”

Modern Warfare: Video Game Playing and Posttraumatic Symptoms in Veterans

“…Consistent with previous research reviewed above, we found that social support and personality are relevant for understanding the effect of video games on mental health, and these results fit within the emerging literature finding limited harm of video game play (Ferguson, ). The influence of these psychosocial factors and historical overinterpretation of the modest negative effects of media on mental health (Markey, French, & Markey, ) should be considered in clinically evaluating veterans’ game playing.…”