The problem of indexing risk of viewing television aggression

Abstract

Media effects research has documented that violence can have a disinhibiting effect on viewers. It has also identified a number of factors that contribute to this effect. But it has yet to address the issue of how to assemble the multiple contributing elements into a single scale that could usefully predict risk of disinhibition. This study provides an empirical test to demonstrate why this is a major problem as policymakers look to social scientists to assess the relative degree of risk of watching different kinds of portrayals and thereby develop useful program warnings and V‐chip software.