ASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) — Children who watch violent television shows, identify with the characters and believe that they are realistic are more likely to be aggressive as adults, psychologists reported in a study today.Posted on 03/10/2003 9:50:51 PM PST by JohnHuang2
ASHINGTON, March 10 (Reuters) — Children who watch violent television shows, identify with the characters and believe that they are realistic are more likely to be aggressive as adults, psychologists reported in a study today.
The strongest effects came not from the most violent programs, the study found, but from those that children liked the best, even some that by today's standards would not be considered especially violent.
For the study, which appears this week in the journal Developmental Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association, the researchers interviewed Chicago-area children ages 6 to 10 starting in 1977 as well as their teachers and parents and analyzed the children's viewing habits.
The researchers, from the University of Michigan, reinterviewed 329 of the 557 original participants. They also talked to their spouses and checked criminal records.
Fifteen years later those who had most frequently watched violent television shows and enjoyed and identified with them, the study found, tended to be more aggressive.
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