Media Violence and Antisocial Behavior: An Overview
Abstract
Do media portrayals of interpersonal violence engender aggression among the observers? This question has been the focus of social scientific inquiry for over a quarter of a century. The initial research efforts of numerous investigators led to the surgeon general's research program on television and social behavior in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The surgeon general's conclusion that “television violence, indeed, does have an adverse effect on certain members of our society” (Steinfeld, 1972) stimulated a torrent of research, congressional hearings, and expressions of public concern. The late 1970s and early 1980s also saw the emergence of cable television and the video cassette as major media forces. Accordingly, many teenagers and even preadolescents became frequent viewers of scenes that graphically couple sex and violence. Not surprisingly, a new research focus developed on the effects of such media stimuli.