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Lecture 4: Link b/w Media & Violence - Coggle Diagram
Lecture 4: Link b/w Media & Violence
Is there an effect of media violence on viewers?
Case:
Video Games (Schwarzenegger & Edmund Brown)
Imposing a fine on dealers selling video games outside their violence ratings
Gruel brief
Established that violent media is an important risk factor that can be managed
13 authors with 102 signees backed by scholarship, current research and science
Playing a lot of violent video-games has a small but measurable effect on violence
Millett brief
82 signees - opposing view; medical scientists, scholars, owners, agents, industry representatives
SMALL BUT MEASURABLE
Media violence as a risk factor for agression
Risk factors for aggression include: Peer delinquency, media violence (23%), peer victimisation, neighbourhood crime, gender*male, abusive parenting
Has both long and short term effects
Risk factor:
contributing factor with personality, family, mental health, acccess to weapons
Protective factors:
Caring community, warm parenting, peers
Lab studies
: show short term changes
Increased aggressive thoughts
More fearful; overestimate likelihood of being a victim
Emotional desensitisation to violence
Longitudinal studies
Subtle changes to thinking (hostile attributional bias, normative beliefs that approve aggression, tolerate increased levels of violence)
decreased empathy and pro-social behaviour
Size of the effect
Critics: say effect is small and therefore is unimportant
Supporters: say that small effects are still important
Eg. asbestos, calcium intake, lead exposure, second-hand smoke, HIV/condom use, lung cancer all have small correlations
No longer need to determine if there IS an effect, it is consistently found
What is most important is to tease out complexities and develop processes to manage the risk
How:
Brain findings
LIMBIC SYSTEM ACTIVATION
Increases emotional responses, more automatic responses fight/flight
Activation of amygdala
POSTERIOR CINGULATE - TRAUMA MEMORY STORAGE
Images of violence are stored in a similar pattern to trauma memories in PTSD patients
These memories are easily re-called and intrude on thoughts
PREFRONTAL CORTEX INHIBITED - IMPULSE CONTROL
Inhibition of the part of the brain that thinks about consequences
Makes aggressive impulses more likely
RIGHT HEMISPHERE ACTIVATION - EMOTION PROCESSING
Negative emotions are activated: anger, jealousy, sadness
Desensitisation
Study by Gentile 2016 comparing habitual players of violent and non-violent players
Non-violent players had an increase in emotional response regions while violent players had active suppression of the same regions (desensitsation
Learning & Acquisition
Imitation & social learning: mirror neurons: identification and copying aggressive characters especially if attractive heroic and high status
Puts more aggressive-related concepts and scripts for behaviour in neural network
Associative learning: pairing, aggression is rewarded and not punished
Remediation
Study of reduction in aggression in a locked facility after MTV removal
22 week difference: sig. reduction in aggression
Disciplines
Clinical
Screen based addictions (eg. Gaming Disorder)
Cognitive
Theories that ag is connected to neural networks
Developmental
Young brains are developing, have less experience to contextualise violence
Changes to neural networks have more impact and implications
Emotion
Violent media seems to activate emotion centres AND behavioural inhibition mechanisms
Learning
Changes to neural networks is caused by associative, instrumental and imitative learning
Neuropsychology
Patterns of brain activation may be indicative of internal psychological processes
Perception
We have visual dominance - effects are stronger for things we see
Personality
Inconclusive findings
Relationships
Impact on conflict resolution, interpersonal interactions
Social
Social phenomena