A Correlation Between Television Viewing and Aggressiveness

Many studies have examined the effects of television on viewers. American studies have just provided proof that the small screen would make people aggressive if viewed longer than one hour a day! So how can you control yourself from not watching television?

The debate about television and its possible adverse effects is regularly on the headlines and if thousands of studies provide conflicting results, the latest one, published by the prestigious Science journal, could provide a partial solution. It proves that too much TV is synonymous with aggression!

A study of more than 17 years

This study deserves to be addressed because it is one of the largest conducted on the subject. First, it included 707 American families, but more importantly, it took over 17 years. Thus viewers and their families were interviewed in 1983, 1985, 1993 and 2000. They had an average of 16 years in the early interviews and thus at about thirty years at the latest.

Watching more than three hours of television daily is dangerous!

As regards the effects of television, researchers have classified viewers into three groups: First group consisted of those viewing television an hour per day, the second group one to three hours of television viewing daily while the third group consisted of those people who watched over three hours daily. By interviewing the family and local authorities, they then assessed the number of violent acts committed by the following like for example assaults and fights. The result clearly showed that the more people watch TV the more they become aggressive. This is especially evident among young people where 5.7% of those who spent less than an hour in front of the TV have committed violent acts between 16 and 22 years. The rate climbed to 22.5% and 28.8% for the second and third group respectively.

Are men more affected than women?

Looking in detail, scientists have found that boys were more influenced than girls by the small screen. Thus, again between 16 and 22 years, of the male spectators who watched TV for more than three hours a day, 45.2% of them committed violent acts opposed to 8.9% of those who watched TV for less than an hour daily. However, as for females, the percentages were 2.3% and 12.7% respectively which clearly showed that they were less aggressive compared to males.

Are adults less aggressive?

The study also looked at the age bracket of 22 to 30 years to see if the effect of television diminishes with age. The differences between rates of aggression by the time spent is generally less severe in adults (7.2% for those who watch less than an hour a day on TV, 9% between 1 and 3 hours and 17.8% for more than three hours), but in detail, both sexes do not react the same way. Indeed, among women the difference in aggressiveness depending on the time spent watching TV is huge, larger than in adolescents: from 0% for those who spend less than an hour per day to 16.8% for addicts who spend more than three hours. Are young women more susceptible while they grow up?

A strong suspicion

The scientists did not give the blame television directly to violence! They only found a correlation between the two phenomena. This link is even stronger than it is independent of other factors like social and residential. The study reveals that television shows an average of five violent acts per hour which increases to twenty in programmes for adolescents.

Sources:

Science, March 2002; Vol 295