Violence doesn't make TV more enjoyable

Contrary to the belief of some television producers, spiking cartoons with a dose of violence doesn't make children enjoy them more.

Despite growing concern about the effects of media violence on children, violent television shows and movies continue to be produced and marketed to them. An estimated 70 percent of children's TV shows now contain some degree of violent content.

Researchers in America tested a common view presented by media producers that children like to watch violent programming. For many producers and media critics, the question is not if children love violence, but rather why children love violence. The goal of this study was to examine children's liking of violent content while independently manipulating the amount of action, which is often confounded with violence in the existing research.





Researchers sought the opinions of 128 youngsters following exposure to a series of animated programmes in America. The participants were between the ages of 5 and 11 years (from kindergarten through fourth grade), and included as many boys as girls. The children viewed one of four different versions of short animated pieces that ran for about five minutes and were designed specifically for the study. All were slapstick in nature, but they differed in terms of the degree of violence included. Afterwards, the researchers led the children through questionnaires about the different episodes.

It was found that violent content was actually a turn off for boys, depending on how they connected with the characters involved. In fact, the less violent the characters, the more boys identified with them and enjoyed the program at hand. Girls did not have the same reaction, however, feeling no more attached to those characters that were less aggressive.

The researchers suggested that this may be because slapstick content generally appeals more to boys than girls. Nevertheless, girls did not actually prefer the more violent content any more than the boys did.
The researchers conclude that if producers are willing to work on making cartoons that aren't violent so much as action packed, they can still capture their target audience better and without the harmful consequences.

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