Trait aggressiveness, media violence, and perceptions of interpersonal conflict

This study explores the short-term impact of exposure to violent mass media content while accounting for personality (i.e. trait-aggression) and situational factors (e.g. responsibility for actions). Following exposure to either a violent or nonviolent movie, participants reported their perceptions of violent interpersonal incidents described in four written scenarios. The findings revealed that respondents’ aggressive dispositions and sex mediated the impact of media violence on subsequent perceptions of violent, interpersonal conflicts. Specifically, high trait-aggressive individuals generally displayed more callous and hostile tendencies in their perceptions of interpersonal conflicts than low trait-aggressive individuals. Moreover, high trait-aggressive males were found to be most extreme in reporting aggressive thoughts and actions. Surprisingly, the data did not support the hypothesis that exposure to a violent movie would have a negative impact on viewers. Berkowitz’s cognitive-neoassociationistic theory [Berkowitz, L. (1984). Some effects of thoughts on anti-social and prosocial influences on media effects: a cognitive-neoassociation analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 410–427; Berkowitz, L. (1990). On the formation and regulation of anger and aggression: a cognitive-neoassociation analysis. American Psychologist, 45, 494–503; Jo, E. & Berkowitz, L. (1994). A priming effect analysis of media influences: an update. In J. Bryant & D. Zillman, Media effects: advances in theory and research (pp. 43–60). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum] is employed to account for this discrepancy. Suggestions for future research are provided.