Robert D. Ridge, Brooke E. Dresden, Felicia L. Farley and Christopher E. Hawk
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of reconciliation and retaliation story endings on subsequent aggressive affect and behavior.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of reconciliation and retaliation story endings on subsequent aggressive affect and behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants took part in two ostensibly unrelated studies. The first involved reading a violent story, attributed to a biblical or secular source, which ended in either brutal retaliation or peaceful reconciliation. They then took part in a second study in which they completed measures of aggressive affect and behavior.
Findings
Participants told that their stories came from a secular source experienced a more aggressive affect than those told that their stories came from a biblical source. In terms of behavioral aggression, a significant difference in effect of the story ending on males and females emerged. Females who read the reconciliation ending had lower levels of behavioral aggression than females who read the retaliation ending. Conversely, males who read the reconciliation ending had higher levels of behavioral aggression than males who read the retaliation ending.
Research limitations/implications
These findings suggest that media depictions of prosocial reactions to unprovoked aggression may not reduce aggression in men.
Practical implications
Results are discussed in terms of moral values espoused by women and men and suggest that anti-violence messages may be strengthened to the extent they address the values important to both.
Originality/value
This study extends research on violent media exposure to a burgeoning literature on reading violent content.
Details
Keywords
On April 2, 1987, IBM unveiled a series of long‐awaited new hardware and software products. The new computer line, dubbed the Personal Systems 30, 50, 60, and 80, seems destined…
Abstract
On April 2, 1987, IBM unveiled a series of long‐awaited new hardware and software products. The new computer line, dubbed the Personal Systems 30, 50, 60, and 80, seems destined to replace the XT and AT models that are the mainstay of the firm's current personal computer offerings. The numerous changes in hardware and software, while representing improvements on previous IBM technology, will require users purchasing additional computers to make difficult choices as to which of the two IBM architectures to adopt.