Does Media Violence Cause Violent Behavior?

Media Violence Causes Violent Behavior
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SSC130: Essentials of Psychology
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Media Violence Causes Violent Behavior
Since the mid-1960s, debate has persisted on the influence on violence on behavior. As the years pass, violence in the media including in television, movies, and video games has increased. Psychologists and scholars have provided evidence that both support and counter the assertion. The paper provides a background on the two sides of the debate. It also provides support that media violence causes violent behavior by increasing aggressive thoughts, contributes to antisocial behavior in young adulthood, and people with mental illness are more vulnerable.
Media violence increases with increasing hours spent watching television. Kaplan (2012) argues that today, the average American spends almost 5 hours watching video everyday with 98 percent being on traditional television. About two-thirds of content found in media contains some level of violence. On one side, some researchers claim that media violence encourages people especially children and adolescents to engage in violent behavior. Opponents of media violence as an instigator of violence claim that the assertion is false because many people watch violent content but do not engage in violent or aggressive behavior.
Increased exposure to media violence increases aggressive thoughts and decreases empathy towards others. Calvert et al. (2015) study showed that playing violent video games increases aggression. Individuals become entangled in the fantasy world such that it becomes part of their thoughts and feelings. The report also indicated that such individuals showed decreased in empathy, little desire to help others, and sensitivity to aggression (Calvert et al., 2015). Children faced with multiple risk factors such as poverty, neglect, abuse, and isolation show higher tendencies of aggression. The more one plays the video games, the higher the preoccupation and likelihood of aggressive tendencies.
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