This study examines the third-person effect (the belief that others are mor
e affected by media messages than oneself) for two different effects of tel
evised violence, mean world perceptions and aggression, using attribution t
heory as an explanatory framework. In telephone interviews with a random sa
mple of 253 community residents, third-person effects, as predicted, were o
bserved for both aggression and mean world perceptions, but were larger for
the more socially undesirable influence on aggression and for more distant
others (in the U.S. rather than the local community). In addition, those w
ho compared themselves favorably with others perceived a larger third-perso
n effect for aggression. The study also explores the role of other factors
in the third-person effect, including demographics and liking for and expos
ure to televised violence.