Media Influence (AQA A-Level Psychology): Revision Notes
Desensitisation, Disinhibition & Cognitive Priming
These three psychological mechanisms explain how media content can influence aggressive behaviour and social responses. Understanding these processes is crucial for evaluating the relationship between media consumption and behaviour change.
Desensitisation
Desensitisation occurs when individuals become accustomed to violence portrayed in media, resulting in reduced emotional responses when encountering similar content. This psychological process means that repeated exposure to violent material gradually diminishes the impact it has on viewers.
The process works by reducing people's natural emotional, cognitive, and behavioural responses to violence. When someone first encounters disturbing content, they typically experience strong reactions. However, continued exposure leads to habituation - the same material no longer provokes the intense response it once did. This decreased sensitivity can potentially make individuals more tolerant of real-world violence and less likely to intervene when witnessing aggressive behaviour.
Research evidence
Research Example: Drabman & Thomas (1974)
Study Focus: Children's tolerance towards violent films
Method: Measured children's responses to violent content with increasing exposure
Key Finding: Children showed increased tolerance towards violent films as their exposure to such content increased, providing early support for the desensitisation effect.
Research Example: Bushman (2009)
Study Focus: Helping behaviour after violent video game exposure
Method: Participants played violent or non-violent games for 20 minutes, then researchers observed responses to someone being injured nearby
Key Finding: Those who played violent games showed delayed responses when someone nearby was injured, suggesting reduced empathetic responses and prosocial behaviour.
Belson (1978) investigated the relationship between television viewing habits and antisocial attitudes among 1,500 teenage boys. However, his study found no clear relationship between exposure to violent content and antisocial behaviour, which challenges the straightforward desensitisation hypothesis.
Evaluation of desensitisation
Critical Limitation: The argument that reduced emotional responses lead to increased aggression has significant flaws. Lower arousal levels might actually decrease the likelihood of aggressive behaviour, as violence and aggression typically require high emotional states to occur.
Research findings present mixed evidence for desensitisation effects. While some studies support the concept, others fail to establish clear links between media exposure and reduced sensitivity to violence. This inconsistency suggests that the relationship between media consumption and desensitisation may be more complex than initially theorised.
Establishing direct connections between media exposure and desensitisation proves challenging due to the widespread nature of media consumption and individual differences in emotional responses. People vary considerably in their baseline sensitivity levels and vulnerability to desensitisation effects, making it difficult to predict who will be affected and to what degree.
Disinhibition
Disinhibition refers to the reduction of normal social restraints that occurs when individuals engage with aggressive media content. This process can lead people to behave in ways that are uncharacteristic of their usual conduct, particularly in virtual or gaming environments where normal social rules appear suspended.
Mechanisms of disinhibition
Suler (2004) identified several key mechanisms that explain how disinhibition operates in media environments. These mechanisms help explain why people may act differently when engaging with media content.
Anonymity and invisibility provide users with a sense that their actions cannot be traced back to them personally. This perceived anonymity reduces feelings of accountability and responsibility, similar to how people might behave differently when their identity is obscured in real-world situations.
Solipsistic introjection occurs when individuals become cognitively merged with their virtual characters or avatars. Players may psychologically identify so strongly with their in-game persona that the boundary between self and character becomes blurred, leading to behaviour that reflects the character rather than their true personality.
Minimisation of authority happens because virtual environments typically lack the law enforcement and social monitoring present in real life. Without these external constraints, individuals may engage in behaviours they would normally avoid due to fear of legal or social consequences.
Research evidence
Research Example: Bandura, Underwood & Fromson (1975)
Study Focus: Effects of dehumanisation on aggressive behaviour
Key Finding: When people felt less responsible for their actions, they were more likely to engage in punitive behaviour. The more dehumanised participants felt, the more aggressive their responses became.
Significance: Provides strong support for the disinhibition hypothesis by demonstrating the link between reduced responsibility and increased aggression.
Research Example: Josephson (1987)
Study Focus: Comparing priming, social scripts, and disinhibition effects
Method: Boys watched violent or non-violent television content before participating in a hockey game, with aggression measured through naturalistic observation
Key Finding: Violent television and associated cues increased aggressive behaviour, but only in boys who were already rated as normally aggressive by their teachers. Boys not typically aggressive showed minimal changes.
Implication: Suggests disinhibition effects may be context-specific and depend on pre-existing tendencies.
Pinto da Mota Matos and Haase (2011) found that participants' perception of television content as realistic was negatively correlated with aggressive behaviour. This counterintuitive finding suggests that disinhibition might not operate as simply as theorised.
Evaluation of disinhibition
Key Limitation: The disinhibition effect appears most pronounced in computer gaming contexts, with limited evidence for similar effects across all forms of media. This specificity suggests disinhibition may be particularly relevant to interactive media rather than passive consumption.
Disinhibition effects seem to be temporary, occurring primarily during active engagement with media content. Once individuals stop playing games or consuming violent media, the disinhibiting effects appear to diminish, limiting the long-term impact on behaviour.
Individual differences play a crucial role in determining susceptibility to disinhibition. People who are highly engaged with media content and less easily distracted by external stimuli appear more vulnerable to these effects. However, this narrows the applicability of disinhibition research to a specific subset of media consumers.
Cognitive priming
Cognitive priming suggests that exposure to media content can activate related thoughts, emotions, and behavioural tendencies through associative memory networks. When individuals encounter aggressive cues in media, these stimuli can trigger previously stored memories and associations related to aggression, potentially influencing subsequent behaviour.
This process operates beyond simple imitation, affecting general attitudes and behavioural predispositions. Exposure to prosocial media content might encourage compassionate behaviour, while aggressive content could activate hostile thoughts and responses.
The effectiveness of cognitive priming depends on contextual factors and the similarity between the priming stimulus and the individual's current situation.
Research evidence
Research Example: Anderson, Anderson & Deusser (1996)
Study Focus: Environmental and cognitive priming effects using weapon-related imagery
Method: Manipulated room temperature alongside exposure to gun images, measured aggression through questionnaires assessing hostile attitudes and thoughts
Key Finding: Exposure to weapon imagery increased hostile thoughts, demonstrating that visual cues can prime aggressive cognitions, though effects were relatively short-lived.
Research Example: Murray et al. (2007)
Study Focus: Neural responses in children watching violent vs non-violent films
Method: Used fMRI brain scanning technology to examine brain activity
Key Finding: Children exposed to violent content showed increased activity in brain regions associated with emotional processing and memory formation, suggesting violent media creates lasting memory traces that could later promote aggressive behaviour.
Holloway et al. (1977) examined prosocial priming effects by exposing participants to prosocial messages via radio before engaging in a bargaining task. Participants who heard the prosocial content demonstrated more cooperative bargaining behaviour compared to control groups, indicating that positive media messages can prime prosocial responses.
Moriarty & McCabe (1977) found that children who witnessed others behaving prosocially were more likely to engage in helpful behaviour themselves. However, the children did not simply imitate the specific behaviours they observed but rather adopted a more general prosocial orientation, supporting the idea that priming influences broad behavioural tendencies rather than specific actions.
Evaluation of cognitive priming
Mixed Evidence: Research evidence for cognitive priming effects remains inconsistent, with studies showing varying degrees of influence on behaviour. The specificity of priming effects - whether they influence particular behaviours or general conduct - remains unclear.
Cognitive priming effects may depend heavily on individual predispositions and personality characteristics. The impact is likely to be subtle, potentially shifting someone towards prosocial behaviour if they are already inclined in that direction, rather than dramatically changing aggressive individuals.
The concept of cognitive priming can appear overly simplistic when explaining complex social behaviours. Social learning involves multiple mediating processes including motivation, attention, and contextual factors that influence whether priming effects translate into actual behavioural changes.
Establishing clear causal relationships between cognitive priming and aggressive behaviour proves challenging. While correlational evidence suggests that exposure to violent media increases the likelihood of aggressive thoughts and actions, this relationship could reflect pre-existing preferences rather than causal influence - aggressive individuals may simply choose to consume more violent content.
Key Points to Remember:
-
Desensitisation occurs when repeated exposure to media violence reduces emotional responses and increases tolerance for aggressive content over time
-
Disinhibition happens when media engagement reduces normal social restraints through anonymity, role-playing, and minimised consequences, leading to uncharacteristic behaviour
-
Cognitive priming involves media cues triggering associated memories and thoughts, potentially influencing attitudes and behaviours related to aggression or prosocial conduct
-
Research evidence for all three mechanisms is mixed, with effects varying based on individual differences, media type, and contextual factors
-
These processes may work together to influence how media consumption affects aggressive behaviour, though establishing direct causal relationships remains challenging