The Effects of Multiple Exposures to Filmed Violence Against Women

Abstract

Men who viewed five movies depicting violence against women came to have fewer negative emotional reactions to the films, to perceive them as significantly less violent, and to consider them significantly less degrading to women.Much concern has been expressed over what is perceived to be an increasing trend toward the portrayal of brutality against women in the media. Some individuals contend that the continual portrayal of women in film and other mass media as victims of sexual assault and other violent acts encourages the battering and sexual harassment of women in real life (21). Laboratory investigations of the effect of media portrayals on aggression against women have generally shown that exposing men to such portrayals results in more negative attitudes about women and increases in aggression against them (24). The study reported in this article attempts to extend previous research by exposing men to five commercially released, feature-length, R-rated movies that depict vioSex and Violence I Filmed Violence Against Women lence against women and then measuring the impact of this exposure on judgments made about the victim of a violent sexual assault.Malamuth (22) first pointed to the possibility that aggressive-pornographic stimuli might increase aggressive behavior against women. In his study, male subjects viewed aggressive or non-aggressive pictorials in Penthouse magazine that had been judged to be equally sexually arousing. The aggressive stimulus depicted the rape of a woman with some suggestion that the woman became sexually aroused by the rape. The non-aggressive stimulus depicted mutually consenting sex. Half the subjects were also given a communication designed to reduce inhibitions against aggression in which the experimenter said it was "okay" to behave as aggressively as they wished. Following exposure to these stimuli, subjects were insulted by a female confederate and then given the opportunity to give her an electric shock. Those males who were exposed to the aggressive' pornography and also received the disinhibitory communication delivered significantly more electric shocks than the others. Donnerstein (11, 12) conducted similar studies using short pornographic film clips. In one study (12), male subjects were either angered or treated in a neutral manner and then exposed to a non-aggressive pornographic film, an aggressive-pornographic film, or a neutral film. After viewing the films, subjects were given the opportunity to aggress against either a male victim or a female victim, both confederates of the experimenter. The results indicated that the combination of exposure to 131 Journal of Communication, Summer 1984 aggressive pornography, a high level of pre-exposure anger, and pairing with a female victim resulted in the highest level of aggressive behavior. However, even non-angered male subjects exposed to violent pornography showed significantly higher levels of aggression when paired with a female victim. Additional experiments (14) have demonstrated that exposure to aggressive-porn...

X-rated material and perpetration of sexually aggressive behavior among children and adolescents: is there a link?

“…In contrast, consumers of nonviolent x-rated material are statistically equally likely to report sexually aggressive behavior compared to those who report no consumption of nonviolent x-rated material. This finding is consistent with the adult literature suggesting that violent pornography may be particularly influential compared to nonviolent pornography [Demare´et al, 1988;Donnerstein and Linz, 1986;Linz et al, 1984]. It may be that viewing pornography that portrays sexual aggression as rewarding may reinforce an individual's own proclivity toward sexually aggressive behavior.…”

“…Most studies report that sexually aggressive behavior and attitudes are elevated for adults who report pornography consumption [Carroll et al, 2008;Malamuth et al, 2000;Vega and Malamuth, 2007;Williams et al, 2009]. Violent pornography may be particularly influential in affecting behavior compared to nonviolent pornography [Demare´et al, 1988;Donnerstein and Linz, 1986;Linz et al, 1984]. Furthermore, men who are at ''high risk'' for sexual aggression seem to be particularly affected by frequent pornography consumption [Vega and Malamuth, 2007].…”

Desensitization to media violence over a short period of time

“…The participants completed four items on how ''enjoyable'' or ''entertaining'' they found the different violent and comedy scenes (''I enjoyed watching the scene,'' ''The scene was amusing,'' ''The video segment was entertaining,'' ''I did not like or enjoy the scene'' (reverse coded)). The items were adapted from the Film Evaluation Instrument [Linz et al, 1984]. Additionally, participants responded to four questions designed to measure their empathic responding and how much they sympathized with the victim of violence (''At the end of the clip I felt sorry for the victim of violence,'' ''I felt sympathy for the victim of violence because he/she appeared to be in physical pain,'' ''I felt sympathy for the victim of violence because he/ she appeared to suffer emotionally,'' ''During the violent episode the victim showed fear and anxiety'').…”

Kijkwijzer: The Dutch Rating System for Audiovisual Productions

“…A second context characteristic of media violence that may stimulate desensitization is the extent to which the consequences of the violence are shown (blood, serious injuries, mutilation). Such images increase the risk of viewers becoming desensitized or indifferent to violence (Linz, Donnerstein, and Penrod, 1984).…”