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Perceptions of television violence: Effects of programme genre and type of violence on viewers' judgements of violent portrayals
Author(s) -
Gunter Barrie,
Furnham Adrian
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1984.tb00624.x
Subject(s) - drama , psychology , hostility , aggression , perception , social psychology , violent crime , poison control , suicide prevention , criminology , literature , art , medical emergency , neuroscience , medicine
This paper reports two studies which examined the mediating effects of programme genre and physical form of violence on viewers' perceptions of violent TV portrayals. In Expt 1, a panel of British viewers saw portrayals from five programme genres: British crime‐drama series. US crime‐drama series, westerns, science‐fiction series and cartoons which feature either fights or shootings. In Expt. 2, the same viewers rated portrayals from British crime‐drama and westerns which featured four types of violence, fist‐fights, shootings, stabbings and explosions. All scenes were rated along eight unipolar scales. Panel members also completed four subscales of a personal hostility inventory. Results showed that both fictional setting and physical form had signficant effects on viewers' perceptions of televised violence. British crime‐drama portrayals, and portrayals that featured shootings and stabbings, were rated as most violent and disturbing. Also, there were strong differences between viewers with different self‐reported propensities towards either verbal or physical aggression. More physically aggressive individuals tended to perceive physical unarmed violence as less violent than did more verbally aggressive types.