Does Violence on Television Affect Only Children Who are Already More Aggressive?
This question is not easily settled. Joy, Kimball, & Zambrack (1986) found that in Notel both children who were high on aggression and children who were low on aggression before the introduction of television became more aggressive after television was introduced. In contrast, Josephson (1987) reported that exposing more aggressive groups of boys to televised violence resulted in higher levels of subsequent aggression than exposing them to a nonviolent show. In contrast, less aggressive groups of boys had higher levels of subsequent aggression after the nonviolent show than after the violent show. Part of the problem appears to involve the fact that there is a feedback loop between watching violent television and being aggressive. Exposure to violence does appear to increase aggression, but being aggressive also seems to increase preferences for violent television, perhaps because the fact that aggressive behaviour leads to peer rejection means that aggressive children have fewer optio
