Hypermasculinity, Aggression, and Television Violence: An Experiment

Abstract

This experiment tests the role of hypermasculinity (HM) and trait aggression in predicting aggressive responses following exposure to violent television stimuli. Male college students (N = 93) were exposed to a violent and hypermasculine television program, a violence-only program, or a control program. Results find that some dimensions of HM and preexisting aggression interacted with exposure to the treatment stimuli to predict change in aggression, and that HM can also be treated as a dependent variable that is affected by television exposure.