A new study has revealed that watching media violence and exposure to violent video games significantly increases the risk that both kids and adults will behave aggressively.
The study, conducted at the University of Michigan, looked at more than half a century of research on the impact of exposure to violence in television, movies, video games and on the Internet."The research clearly shows that exposure to virtual violence increases the risk that both children and adults will behave aggressively," said L. Rowell Huesmann, the Amos N. Tversky Collegiate Professor of Communication Studies and Psychology, and a senior research scientist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR).
Huesmann has pointed out in his article that American kids spend an average of three to four hours a day watching television. "More than 60 percent of television programs contain some violence and about 40 percent of those contain heavy violence. Children are also spending an increasingly large amount of time playing video games, most of which contain violence. Video game units are now present in 83 percent of homes with children," he said.
According to the research conducted by Huesmann and ISR colleague Brad Bushman, media violence significantly increases the risk that both children and adults will behave aggressively.
"Exposure to violent electronic media has a larger effect than all but one other well-known threat to public health. The only effect slightly larger than the effect of media violence on aggression is that of cigarette smoking on lung cancer," Huesmann said.
"Our lives are saturated by the mass media, and for better or worse, violent media are having a particularly detrimental effect on the well-being of children.
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The study is published in a special issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
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