Browsing by Subject "media violence"

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    Decreased Prefrontal Activity During a Cognitive Inhibition Task Following Violent Video Game Play: A Multi-Week Randomized Trial
    (APA, 2019) Hummer, Tom A.; Kronenberger, William G.; Wang, Yang; Mathews, Vincent P.; Psychiatry, School of Medicine
    There is substantial evidence that exposure to violent media increases aggressive thoughts and behaviors, potentially due in part to alterations to inhibitory mechanisms mediated by prefrontal cortex. Past research has demonstrated that playing a violent video game for short periods decreases subsequent prefrontal activity during inhibition, yet the impact of long-term game play is unclear. To assess how extensive video game play impacts brain activity, young adult males (n = 49; ages 18–29) with limited video game experience performed a go/no-go task during fMRI for 3 consecutive weeks. Following a baseline scan, these men were randomly assigned to extensively play a violent video game (VG) or avoid all video game play (control) during the subsequent week. After 1 week, inhibition-related activity decreased in right inferior frontal gyrus and right cerebellum in the VG group, compared to the control sample, and self-reported executive functioning problems were higher. VG participants assigned to a second week of game play had similarly reduced bilateral prefrontal activity during inhibition, relative to the control group. However, VG participants assigned to avoid game play or play a cognitive training game during the second week demonstrated similar overall changes from baseline as the control group. This research provides preliminary evidence indicating how long-term video game play may impact brain function during inhibition, which may impair control of aggressive behavior.
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    Media Violence Effects on Brain Development: What Neuroimaging Has Revealed and What Lies Ahead
    (Sage, 2015-12) Hummer, Tom A.; Department of Psychiatry, IU School of Medicine
    Substantial research has indicated that media violence induces both short- and long-term increases in aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Recently, neuroimaging techniques have begun to identify the mechanisms driving these changes. An important avenue that these neuroimaging tools can address is how exposure to media violence in childhood affects brain development, which can have lifelong behavioral consequences. This review highlights neuroimaging research examining how media violence exposure affects the pediatric brain. While such research is limited, evidence suggests that prefrontal mechanisms for controlling emotion and behavior are altered by exposure to violent media. Therefore, long-term increases in aggression and decreases in inhibitory control due to excessive media violence exposure may result from impaired development of prefrontal regions. However, additional neuroimaging research is necessary to establish whether and how exposure to media violence specifically shapes subsequent neural maturation. To optimize the use of neuroimaging in this inquiry, imaging studies should not stand on their own, but instead must be integrated with more traditional research paradigms to establish a more complete picture of effects. Future research must employ more longitudinal approaches to better characterize long-term effects that high exposure to violent screen media may have on brain development, particularly prefrontal and limbic brain regions.
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    SPSSI Research Summary on Media Violence
    (Wiley, 2015-12) Anderson, Craig A.; Bushman, Brad J.; Donnerstein, Edward; Hummer, Tom A.; Warburton, Wayne; Department of Psychiatry, IU School of Medicine
    Media use among children has increased sharply in recent years, due, in part, to a significant increase in multimedia portable devices. On average, U.S. children aged 8–18 spend more than 7 hours a day engaging with media. Governments, professional bodies, and citizens have become increasingly concerned about the social and personal impact of media with violent themes and depictions. This has been driven, in part, by a series of tragic mass killings in which it appears that media violence exposure may have been a contributing risk factor. Public health and child development professionals are increasingly convinced by converging scientific findings linking media violence exposure to increased aggression. Hundreds of scientific studies involving hundreds of thousands of participants and a wide range of empirical methods have investigated the effects of exposure to violent media. The studies show that: In experimental studies, even brief exposure to media can cause desensitization to real-world violence, increases in aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and decreases in empathy and helping behavior. Short-term effects of media violence and basic psychological processes produce cumulative effects over time, as explained by well-established theories and research and social, developmental, and cognitive processes. Indeed, habitual exposure to media violence produces relatively stable changes in personality traits, such as trait aggression. Longitudinal research—studies that follow individuals over time—rule out plausible alternate explanations to these findings (for example, that the association between media violence and aggressive behavior is entirely the result of inherently aggressive people chasing more violent media). Media violence exposure is linked with physically hurting others, using words to hurt others, and deliberately damaging the relationships of others. Links have been found between violent media exposure and “real-world” violent behaviors such as assault, intimate partner violence, robbery, and gang fighting. A growing body of evidence suggests that media with helping and presocial messages can lead to increases in empathy and helping behaviors, and decreases in aggressive behaviors. Changing a child's media diet from aggressive/violent to presocial, educational, and age-appropriate can reduce aggression, increase presocial behavior, and improve educational outcomes. There is some consensus that a moderate amount of recreational screen time for school children is 1–2 hours per day, and that when screen media are coviewed by and discussed with parents and teachers, children are somewhat less harmed by violent media. Media violence is only one of many risk factors for aggression, but it is one that policy makers, professionals, and parents can address at little cost. Policy makers and media producers would benefit from working cooperatively with media psychologists who have backgrounds in social, developmental, cognitive, and/or personality psychology to produce evidence-informed policies and media products. Policy makers should consider: (1) revising classification systems to be both evidence-based and parent-friendly, (2) including carefully constructed media literacy content in school curricula, and (3) creating a public education campaign on the impact of media violence.