A large number of research studies have shown that watching violent films or engaging in violent actions in video games may promote aggressive behaviour. ‘Violence’ in the media describes actions based on the intention to cause physical harm to media characters, and aggressive behaviour is defined by the intention to cause physical harm to another human being in real life.
A study from our lab that followed a large sample of adolescents in Germany over 3 years showed striking parallels in the patterns of using violent media and engaging in aggressive behaviour (Krahé, Busching and Möller 2012). On four occasions, separated by intervals of 12 months, our participants, who were in Grades 7 or 8 at the start of the study, reported how much time they spent using different media genres on TV, in movies, or in video games (for example crime thrillers, firstperson shooters) and how much aggressive behaviour they had shown in the past 12 months.
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