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Two recently published studies show that prolonged exposure to gratuitous violence in the media can escalate subsequent hostile behaviors and, among some viewers, foster greater acceptance of violence as a means of conflict resolution.

The two studies were conducted by James B. Weaver III, head of the Department of Communication at Virginia Tech, and Dolf Zillmann of the University of Alabama. In one study, the researchers wanted to see if frequent, consistent exposure to violence in films would bring out in people a greater support of violent solutions to social problems. The researchers set up an investigation in which 53 male and 40 female college students with various behavior types (empathetic, Type A, etc.) participated for extra credit in a class. They first took tests to determine their primary personality traits. Then they were told they would view five films, one each evening, to evaluate the films’ viability in the video market. They were exposed to nonviolent or gratuitously violent films over four consecutive days and rated those films. The films included innocuous movies, such as "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Little Man Tate," in which conflicts are resolved without bodily harm, and violent films, such as "Universal Soldier" and "Excessive Force," representing the new cinematic genre of superviolent movies that are laden with maimings and killings and often have a hero who uses such violence.

The researchers were surprised at the strong effect of media violence on the responses of non-provoked persons.

On the fifth day, approximately 24 hours after viewing the fourth film, the students were told the researchers had enough data on the video-rental study, but they could participate in a substitute project to earn their full credit. They took part in a project that they were not told was a part of the film study. An experimenter and helper administered tasks that the students were told would indicate whether they possessed important interaction skills or lacked them. The experimenter then gave them either good scores or poor grades with comments such as "Awful!" and "I sure wouldn’t hire you!" The students then were sent to the professor’s office, where they were asked to help the professor decide whether the new assistants should be given financial assistance or denied it.

Weaver and Zillmann found that no matter what type film the students saw, they reacted in a hostile manner toward the experimenter if they were provoked (recommending that they be denied financial assistance). Exposure to the gratuitously violent film also produced this effect without provocation by the experimenter. The study showed that prolonged exposure to gratuitously violent films is can escalate hostile behavior in both men and women and instigate such behavior in unprovoked research participants. They determined that the effect is not short lived, but remains for some time after the viewing of the films.

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Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:

I'm with you, Jongstraw. I'm over the level of violence, gore, brutality, torture, sadism that constitutes entertainment these days.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
By the way, did any of those movies walk out of the theaters and kill anyone?

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

Hollywood decries the position that their movies or t.v. shows have ANY influence , at all, with today's youth.

But we can't allow tobacco products to advertise on t.v. anymore. Kids might get the impression that smoking is " cool ". So we restrict where cigs can advertise, and slap all manner of warning labels on the cartons, and guess what ? Smoking in this country declines. Imagine that.

But by all means, show all the gore, violence and humans being inhuman to each other... and make sure you put it in 3-D !

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You've just made the case that restricting gun sales, requiring labels so kids don't think they're "cool", restricting where you can and can't take your gun... all would help reduce the incidence of spree killings.

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No wonder people wants guns by their bedside tables, especially as Hero and Raps demonstrate on another thread, they have limited capacity to distinguish between real life and fantasy.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:


Gun sales ARE restricted

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:
I don't necessarily blame Hollywood for the cultural and moral decline in America. It seems some Americans just can't get enough on-screen sex, violence, and gore to satisfy their purient and macabre needs. Hollywood operates as a business, and if there wasn't a market for this stuff they'd stop making these gross films.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:


Gun sales ARE restricted, with buyers required to be of a certain age, and having not been convicted of a felony.

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Originally posted by Niki2:
Mike, of COURSE the restrictions Rap so proudly puts forth are useless when one can buy a gun at a gun show without a background check. But he doesn't want to be reminded of THAT!

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

Jong nails it in one, the demand CREATES the supply, and if that supply was not available commercially they'd find another way - look at prohibition, the war on (some) drugs, the attempted misuse of the tax code to make some items prohibitively expensive (thus leading to smuggling)...
COMMERCE. CONTINUES.

S'why I find the idea of banning things ludicrous, you wanna stop proliferation of something, you go after the DEMAND, find out where and why it is, and address the issues which cause it.

While yes, at some points it does seem a self-feeding cycle, the demand is the key, for without it there'd be no MONEY in supply, and that'd solve your perceived problem pretty quick, wouldn't it ?

Instead of bandaids on bulletwounds, the usual result of kneejerk idiocy.

-Frem

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

We look at people who hoard animals, who hoard things, as mentally unbalanced, well, folks who hoard other resources, ya think maybe something might be WRONG with them, too ?

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

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Originally posted by Niki2:
Mike, of COURSE the restrictions Rap so proudly puts forth are useless when one can buy a gun at a gun show without a background check. But he doesn't want to be reminded of THAT!

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Not true.

Dealers at a show are required by law to make them - where are you getting this information, anyways ?
Now, person-to-person transactions are a different notion, but even then there's usually a requirement for a good faith effort, and most shows will not allow said transactions on the property.

-F

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

Me, I've gone through background checks for every gun I've bought.

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Originally posted by chrisisall:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:

Me, I've gone through background checks for every gun I've bought.

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Mike, you got gats??

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Originally posted by chrisisall:


Mike, you got gats??

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

Also, yanno, wasn't THAT long ago one could buy heroin or cocaine over the counter here, and addition was considered a medical, not legal problem.
And then some dimwit went and decided to start banning stuff.
And look where we are now.

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

Re: Proliferation.

I dispute that, when you drive a business underground, there's no way to have hard data on how much stuff there is, especially when you've given such incentive to conceal it.

Of course prohibition didn't stop the proliferation of alcohol, in fact as far as I can tell demand actually INCREASED, possibly due to forbidden fruit effect.
And we all know the happy consequences of that, not only did it enable and embolden the criminal element, but it also stuck us with a barrage of so-called-protectors who are factually WORSE than the gangs, the BATFE might be only three letters short of batshit, but in their conduct they've long since reached THAT rubicon and crossed it.

Also, yanno, wasn't THAT long ago one could buy heroin or cocaine over the counter here, and addition was considered a medical, not legal problem.
And then some dimwit went and decided to start banning stuff.
And look where we are now.
And the happy consequences of THAT, poisoning our society.

And cause it worked SO WELL the first two times, now you wanna try it again ?
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

-Frem

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:

.....and prostitutes. Progress sucks!

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Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

Re: Proliferation.

I dispute that, when you drive a business underground, there's no way to have hard data on how much stuff there is, especially when you've given such incentive to conceal it.

Of course prohibition didn't stop the proliferation of alcohol, in fact as far as I can tell demand actually INCREASED, possibly due to forbidden fruit effect.
And we all know the happy consequences of that, not only did it enable and embolden the criminal element, but it also stuck us with a barrage of so-called-protectors who are factually WORSE than the gangs, the BATFE might be only three letters short of batshit, but in their conduct they've long since reached THAT rubicon and crossed it.

Also, yanno, wasn't THAT long ago one could buy heroin or cocaine over the counter here, and addition was considered a medical, not legal problem.
And then some dimwit went and decided to start banning stuff.
And look where we are now.
And the happy consequences of THAT, poisoning our society.

And cause it worked SO WELL the first two times, now you wanna try it again ?
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

-Frem

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Re drugs - I think you'll find the data in Holland suggests that legalising increases usage.

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Look to the tobacco industry, regulation and accountability has resulted in massive decrease in number of people who use tobacco. There has been a massive cultural shift, which hasn't just happened by itself, but through an approach that involved regulation, information, marketing, legal remedies and education.

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Originally posted by RionaEire:
if you get caught driving without [insurance] you get in trouble.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
I'd point to DUI legislation and regulations as well. When it was decided on a national level that there was an issue with drunk driving, especially among young adults, things changed. Geezer likes to point out that we didn't take all those "assault cars" off the road, but we DID raise the legal drinking age, didn't we? And we lowered drunk-driving thresholds, upped enforcement, raised the fines and penalties, and more. And lo and behold, we watched drunk driving fatalities and accidents plummet over the next 30 years.

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
I'd point to DUI legislation and regulations as well. When it was decided on a national level that there was an issue with drunk driving, especially among young adults, things changed. Geezer likes to point out that we didn't take all those "assault cars" off the road, but we DID raise the legal drinking age, didn't we? And we lowered drunk-driving thresholds, upped enforcement, raised the fines and penalties, and more. And lo and behold, we watched drunk driving fatalities and accidents plummet over the next 30 years.

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Thank you, Mike, for supporting my point. When you have a problem with people doing things that are dangerous to the public, apply your corrective actions to the people who are engaged in those actions...

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it sounds like there's a suggestion that ALL drugs should be legalized for over-the-counter availability, and I'm sure that's not a case anyone is making.

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I'd ask Frem how easy it is to find a car in this country that gets more than 50mpg, and ask whether that has anything to do with the "easy availability" of bloat-boat SUVs and cheap gas.

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When Adam Lanza left the house, he took a Bushmaster .223 rifle and two handguns -- a Glock 9-millimeter and a Sig Sauer semiautomatic, law enforcement sources said. He left the rifle in the back seat of his mother's car, which he used to drive to the school. Both handguns were fired in the attack, sources said.

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"Among the many misdeeds of British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest." - Mohandas Gandhi, an Autobiography, page 446.

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Posted by Frem:

... lest one forget I also think any man portable weapon of any kind should be legal too, although with area affect weapons I do feel that mandatory insurance against collateral damage should be a requirement of purchase, as well as evidence of competency in use thereof.

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Originally posted by Kwicko:
I'm pretty sure 100% of shootings were done by those with guns.

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We didn't just raise the drinking age on those who drink and drive; we raised it on EVERYONE.

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We didn't require insurance for those who have accidents; we require it for EVERYONE who drives. In this case, those who are doing things that are dangerous to the public are deemed to be... everybody who drives.

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Originally posted by FREMDFIRMA:

Collective punishment is always an act of tyranny, and punishing people for what others have done, and they MIGHT, potentially, maybe, someday, perhaps do....
That is as offensive to me as anything in the universe, and in moments like this provokes extreme degrees of hostility.

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Originally posted by chrisisall:
I am SO with you there, bro. SO with you.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:


Young women... tend to be buying groceries and diapers and stuff like that. Household money stuff.

Some young men... ah, they buy cars, they buy games, they buy entertainment systems, they buy all kinds of useless high-profit toys. What are their buttons??? Well, sex and.... sex and... violence, which is located right in the brain right next to sex... and dominance (which is all about sex) and .... food and ...sex... and alcohol (which all about getting sex) and...

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Originally posted by Niki2:
It's not just gun shows that have the no-background-check loophole, you know. It's even more absurd than that:

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Even after ATF revokes a gun dealer's license for chronic non-compliance with federal law, it has allowed dealers to sell their remaining guns without recordkeeping or background checks - by transferring hundreds guns from their "business inventory" into their "personal collections."

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Originally posted by Geezer:

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Originally posted by Niki2:
It's not just gun shows that have the no-background-check loophole, you know. It's even more absurd than that:

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Even after ATF revokes a gun dealer's license for chronic non-compliance with federal law, it has allowed dealers to sell their remaining guns without recordkeeping or background checks - by transferring hundreds guns from their "business inventory" into their "personal collections."

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Then perhaps you should address your complaint to the guys in charge of the BATFE. That'd be the President and the Attorney General.

You might also ask them why felons found in possession of firearms are so seldom prosecuted under Federal law that makes it illegal, with a 10 year jail sentence possible.

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