Media Violence Research Paper

“There are highly motivated groups dedicated to denying scientific findings of harm, such as the tobacco industry’s decades-long denial of harmful effects of their products on cancer,” Anderson said.

“This study clearly contradicts the denialism that currently dominates news media stories on media violence effects.” Christopher Groves, an ISU graduate research assistant; and Edward Swing and Sara Prot, both ISU Ph. graduates; contributed to this report along with researchers from the University of Tsukuba, Japan; Ochanomizu University, Japan; University of Potsdam, Germany; University of Zagreb, Croatia; Beijing Normal University, China; West University of Timisoara, Romania; Macquarie University, Australia; and Tokai University, Japan.

AMES, Iowa – New research offers compelling evidence that media violence affects aggressive behavior.

This first-of-its-kind study, led by Craig Anderson, a Distinguished Professor of psychology at Iowa State University, confirms six decades of research showing the effect is the same, regardless of culture.

The average age was 21 years old and 38 percent of participants were male.

Researchers asked participants to list their most frequently watched or played TV shows, movies and video games, and to rate the level of violence.

According to these groups, evidence points to a causal association between media violence and aggressive behaviour in some children.

Some scholars have evalualated the magnitude of media violence effects on violent behaviour as almost as important as gang membership (Anderson, Gentile and Buckley, 2007).

However, the large, diverse cultural sample allowed for direct comparisons of media violence effects across nations.

It also disproves claims by the entertainment industry that dismiss all media violence effects.