Parental Desensitization to Gun Violence in PG-13 Movies

Römer, Daniel; Jamieson, Patrick E.; Jamieson, Kathleen Hall; Lull, Robert B.; Adebimpe, Azeez

doi:10.1542/peds.2017-3491

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 14 publications

(18 reference statements)

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“…Nowadays, the entertainment activity for children is playing video games or watching movies, which mostly contain violent themes. Particularly, those movies which contain violent scenes attract viewers' attention, but they are not suitable for teenagers and children to watch [2,3]. Some of the researchers have suggested that watching violent scenes on TV programs or films tend to make teenage more aggressive with undesirable attitudes [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cover the Violence: A Novel Deep-Learning-Based Approach Towards Violence-Detection in Movies

et al. 2019

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Movies have become one of the major sources of entertainment in the current era, which are based on diverse ideas. Action movies have received the most attention in last few years, which contain violent scenes, because it is one of the undesirable features for some individuals that is used to create charm and fantasy. However, these violent scenes have had a negative impact on kids, and they are not comfortable even for mature age people. The best way to stop under aged people from watching violent scenes in movies is to eliminate these scenes. In this paper, we proposed a violence detection scheme for movies that is comprised of three steps. First, the entire movie is segmented into shots, and then a representative frame from each shot is selected based on the level of saliency. Next, these selected frames are passed from a light-weight deep learning model, which is fine-tuned using a transfer learning approach to classify violence and non-violence shots in a movie. Finally, all the non-violence scenes are merged in a sequence to generate a violence-free movie that can be watched by children and as well violence paranoid people. The proposed model is evaluated on three violence benchmark datasets, and it is experimentally proved that the proposed scheme provides a fast and accurate detection of violent scenes in movies compared to the state-of-the-art methods.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cover the Violence: A Novel Deep-Learning-Based Approach Towards Violence-Detection in Movies

et al. 2019

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“…The scenes were selected based on the criterion that justified violence was an acceptable response to prior aggression or wrongdoing (i.e., defense of self or others), and that unjustified violence had no apparently acceptable motive. These characteristics were verified by independent ratings (Romer et al, 2018). For each movie, we first showed the characters engaged in interaction prior to violence followed by a clip of the violent scene.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…We chose this population in order to observe the effects of violent movies on viewers who are most likely not to be emotionally disturbed by exposure to violent content. At the same time, our research with adults (Romer et al, 2018) showed that repeated exposure to justified movie violence enhanced the acceptance of such violence relative to unjustified violence and therefore could maximize our ability to observe the same phenomenon in young people. The scenes were selected based on the criterion that justified violence was an acceptable response to prior aggression or wrongdoing (i.e., defense of self or others), and that unjustified violence had no apparently acceptable motive.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Responses to this question were given on a 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much) scale. Movie clips that were rated high versus low on this scale were then tested with a national adult internet panel ( N = 610) (Romer et al, 2018) that was randomly assigned to view either a set of four justified or four unjustified videos. These viewers verified that the two sets of videos differed in justification for violence, 3.82 ± 1.67 versus 2.67 ± 1.57, F (1,608) = 67.4, p < 0.001.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, some portrayals are more likely to be emulated than others. Violence that is seen as justified, in which characters kill others in self-defense or to protect friends and family are more likely to register approval than violence that has no socially redeeming value (Samson and Potter, 2016; Romer et al, 2018). Furthermore, laboratory studies have found that exposure to justified film violence reduces inhibitions to act aggressively to a greater degree than exposure to unjustified violence (Berkowitz, 1984).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Intersubject Synchronization of Late Adolescent Brain Responses to Violent Movies: A Virtue-Ethics Approach

Adebimpe¹,

Bassett²,

Jamieson³

et al. 2019

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Movies that involve violence increasingly attract large audiences, leading to concern that such entertainment will encourage imitation by youth, especially when the violence is seen as justified. To assess differences between brain responses to justified and unjustified film violence, we computed intersubject correlation (ISC) of fMRI BOLD time courses in a sample of late adolescents while they watched pairs of movie segments featuring violent characters prior to and during violent action. Based on a virtue-ethics approach that emphasizes motives in moral evaluation, we hypothesized significant ISC in lateral orbital frontal cortex (lOFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in response to unjustified and justified scenes of movie violence, respectively. Our predictions were confirmed. In addition, unjustified violence elicited greater intersubject synchrony in insular cortex, consistent with an empathic response to the pain experienced by victims of this kind of violence. The results provide evidence supporting the notion that lOFC and vmPFC play unique roles in moral evaluation of violence, with lOFC becoming more synchronous in response to unacceptable violence and vmPFC becoming more synchronous in response to virtuous forms of self-defense, thereby expanding the purview of current models that only focus on vmPFC. The results suggest that justified violence in popular movies is acceptable to youth who are accustomed to viewing such entertainment.

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Effect of a Gun Safety Video on Children’s Behavior Around Real Guns

Kjærvik

Bushman

2023

JAMA Pediatr

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ImportanceFirearms are the leading cause of death for children in the US. It is therefore crucial to identify effective ways to reduce firearm injuries among children.ObjectiveTo test the effectiveness of a gun safety video vs a car safety video on decreasing unsafe behaviors around real guns after exposure to a violent movie with vs without guns.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsOf 245 participants aged 8 to 12 years, 226 were tested (13 did not complete the laboratory portion, 4 had technical problems, and 2 did not respond to follow-up inquiries). Data were collected from February 2 to October 16, 2022. Participants were recruited via Facebook ads, ResearchMatch, and parent or guardian referrals. The study was conducted in 2 parts. Children watched a safety video at home 1 week before coming to the laboratory at The Ohio State University.InterventionsPairs of children were randomly assigned to watch a 1-minute gun or car safety video at home. In the laboratory, they were randomly assigned to watch a 20-minute clip from a violent PG-rated movie with or without guns. Next, they played with games and toys for 20 minutes in another room that contained 2 disabled 9-mm handguns hidden in a file cabinet drawer. Sessions were videotaped via a hidden camera.Main Outcomes and MeasuresOutcomes were whether children told an adult, touched a handgun, handled it, or pulled the trigger. Control variables were age, gender, race and ethnicity, trait aggressiveness, age-inappropriate media exposure, firearm attitude and interest, presence of firearms at home, and whether children had taken a firearm safety course.ResultsOf 226 children (mean [SD] age, 9.99 [1.38] years; 113 [52.3%] male), 216 (95.6%) found a gun and were included in analyses. Those who saw the gun (vs car) safety video were more likely to tell an adult about the gun they found (38 of 112 [33.9%] vs 11 of 104 [10.6%]), were less likely to touch the gun (44 of 112 [39.3%] vs 70 of 104 [67.3%]), held the gun fewer seconds if they did touch it (mean [SD], 42.04 [121.46] vs 98.96 [195.10]), were less likely to pull the trigger at all (10 of 112 [8.9%] vs 31 of 104 [29.8%]), and pulled the trigger fewer times (mean [SD], 4.20 [20.17] vs 7.23 [15.75]). Being male, exposure to age-inappropriate movies, and gun interest were related to unsafe behavior. Prior completion of a firearm safety course, having guns at home, and negative gun attitudes were related to safe behavior.ConclusionsIn this trial of children assigned to watch a gun or car safety video, watching a gun safety video reduced children’s unsafe behavior around real guns. Children who had previously taken a gun safety course, had guns in the home, and had negative attitudes toward guns were less likely to engage in unsafe behavior around real guns. To encourage safe firearm behavior, children should be educated about gun safety and should not watch age-inappropriate media.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05257837

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Parental Desensitization to Gun Violence in PG-13 Movies

Cited by 12 publications

References 14 publications

Cover the Violence: A Novel Deep-Learning-Based Approach Towards Violence-Detection in Movies

Cover the Violence: A Novel Deep-Learning-Based Approach Towards Violence-Detection in Movies

Intersubject Synchronization of Late Adolescent Brain Responses to Violent Movies: A Virtue-Ethics Approach

Effect of a Gun Safety Video on Children’s Behavior Around Real Guns

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