Trait aggressiveness, media violence, and perceptions of interpersonal conflict

This study explores the short-term impact of exposure to violent mass media content while accounting for personality (i.e. trait-aggression) and situa tional factors (e.g. responsibility for actions). Following exposure to eit her a violent or nonviolent movie, participants reported their perceptions of violent interpersonal incidents described in four written scenarios. The findings revealed that respondents' aggressive dispositions and sex mediat ed the impact of media violence on subsequent perceptions of violent, inter personal conflicts. Specifically, high trait-aggressive individuals general ly displayed more callous and hostile tendencies in their perceptions of in terpersonal conflicts than low trait-aggressive individuals. Moreover, high trait-aggressive males were found to be most extreme in reporting aggressi ve thoughts and actions. Surprisingly, the data did not support the hypothe sis that exposure to a violent movie would have a negative impact on viewer s. Berkowitz's cognitive-neoassociationistic theory [Berkowitz, L. (1984). Some effects of thoughts on anti-social and prosocial influences on media e ffects: a cognitive-neoassociation analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 95, 41 0-427; Berkowitz, L. (1990). On the formation and regulation of anger and a ggression: a cognitive-neoassociation analysis. American Psychologist, 45, 494-503; Jo, E. & Berkowitz, L. (1994). A priming effect analysis of media influences: an update. In J. Bryant & D. Zillman, Media effects: advances i n theory and research (pp. 43-60). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum] is employed to a ccount for this discrepancy. Suggestions for future research are provided. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.