Contribution of Verbally Aggressive TV Exposure and Perceived Reality to Trait Verbal Aggression

Abstract

This study examined the contributions of verbally aggressive TV exposure and perceived reality to trait verbal aggression. Verbally aggressive TV exposure, categorized by genre, was assessed by respondents’ (N = 591) frequency of viewing 60 TV shows popular among college students and then coded for their verbally aggressive content. A hierarchical regression, controlling for demographic variables, overall TV viewing, and social desirability, found exposure to TV comedies and the utility and social realism dimensions of perceived reality to be significant positive predictors of participants’ trait verbal aggression. However, there were no interaction effects among the TV genre exposure indexes and the perceived reality subscales.

Keywords:

• Verbal aggression
• Perceived Reality
• Verbally Aggressive TV
• TV Genres

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.