Why Observing Violence Increases the Risk of Violent Behavior By the Observer

Abstract

OverviewSevere violent behavior is almost always the product of predisposing individual differences and precipitating situational factors (Huesmann, 1998). One important environmental experience that contributes both to predisposing a person to behave more violently in the long run and to precipitating violent behavior in the short run is exposure to violence. Psychological theories that have emerged over the past few decades now explain the short-term precipitating effects mostly in terms of priming, simple imitation, and excitation transfer. However, the long-term predisposing effects involve more complex processes of observational learning of cognitions and of emotional desensitization.In this chapter these theories are elaborated, and the compelling empirical evidence in support of these theories from experiments and longitudinal field studies is reviewed. We explain why the processes operate equally well from exposure to reallife violence or exposure to dramatic violence in the mass media. We focus particularly on the role of low emotional arousal and diminished emotional reactions to violence as consequences of exposure to violence and precursors of violent behavior. We argue that anticipated emotional responses play an important role in the cognitive processing that controls violent behavior. Abnormal violent behavior is not viewed as a consequence of "deficient" processing, but rather as a consequence of "different" processing.

The Impact of Electronic Media Violence: Scientific Theory and Research

“…Complementing these one-time survey studies are the longitudinal real-world studies that have shown correlations over time from childhood viewing of media violence to later adolescent and adult aggressive behavior [31,32,33,34,35]; for reviews see [4,27,33]. This studies have shown that early habitual exposure to media violence in middle-childhood predicts increased aggressiveness 1 year, 3 years, 10 years, 15 years, and 22 years later in adulthood, even controlling for early aggressiveness.…”

“…Most theorists would now agree that the short term effects of exposure to media violence are mostly due to 1) priming processes, 2) arousal processes, and 3) the immediate mimicking of specific behaviors [3,4].…”

“…Specifically, as children observe violent behavior, they are prone to mimic it. The neurological process through which this happens is not completely understood, but it seems likely that "mirror neurons," which fire when either a behavior is observed or when the same behavior is acted out, play an important role [10,4].…”

“…This process is called "desensitization." Negative emotions experienced automatically by viewers in response to a particular violent or gory scene decline in intensity after many exposures [4]. For example, increased heart rates, perspiration, and self-reports of discomfort often accompany exposure to blood and gore.…”

“…However, with repeated exposures, this negative emotional response habituates, and the child becomes "desensitized." The child can then think about and plan proactive aggressive acts without experiencing negative affect [4].…”