It has been proven through numerous studies that physical violence shown on TV has a tendency to trigger aggressive physical behavior in the viewer. However, there is very little research about the impact of verbal violence on the audience. This study, thus, explores the influence of both verbal and physical violence on viewers in order to determine if they do lead to more aggressive behavior.
Researchers have taken into account previous research on the topic and their findings. Demographics are a variable to take into account since males have been found to respond more aggressively than women. Therefore, sex, race/ethnicity, age/education, and socio-economic status have been used as measurements in the study. Researchers also took into account the fact that questionnaires might not be the best way to gather data since self-reporting one’s verbal and physical aggressiveness can lead participants to provide socially desirable responses: “social desirability responding is the tendency of people to over-report socially desirable behaviors and under-report undesirable behaviors.”
The study consisted of a pretest, a questionnaire, as well as a content analysis of TV shows popular among college students. The 104 pretest participants were part of a different group than the participants in the main study. They were asked to list 5 of their favorite shows, giving researchers a list of 60 shows, 45 of which were listed by at least 2% of the participants, and 15 additional shows. A random episode of each show was selected and instances of verbal and physical aggression, as well as the sex and race/ethnicity of the aggressor, were coded. Verbal aggression incidents included sarcasm, threats, shouting, mocking, insults, etc., and physical aggression incidents included hitting, pushing, stabbing, shooting, etc. Race/ethnicity included Caucasian, African-American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, and other. Aggressor sex included male, female and other.
Questionnaires were then filled out by 637 students, the majority of which were Caucasian (79.7%), female (70%), and reported having one parent with a least a bachelor’s degree (60.6%) or some college background (84.9%). Most students were undergraduates. Questions included how often participants watched each show, questions about their personal aggressive behaviors (“If somebody hits me, I hit back”) as well as about their likeliness to respond with socially desirable answers (“I’m always willing to admit it when I make a mistake”). The questionnaire also included questions about which demographic categories each participant belonged to.
Results showed that the most frequent verbal aggressions were profanities, insults, and yelling. Most of these incidents were performed by male characters (52%). Caucasian characters were the biggest aggressors (69%). The most frequent physical aggressions were shooting, hitting, and stabbing. Most incidents were also performed by male protagonists (62%) and by Caucasian characters (66%). As for the participants, it demonstrated that exposure to violence verbally and physically does increase aggressive behavior, also finding that males tend to be more verbally and physically aggressive than females.
To read more: https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2021.1897817
Jack Glascock. Exposure to Verbally and Physically Aggressive TV: In Search of a Cross-over Effect. JOURNAL OF BROADCASTING & ELECTRONIC MEDIA 2021, VOL. 65, NO. 1, 5–23 DOI 10.1080/08838151.2021.1897817