Mitigating the imitation of aggressive behaviors by changing children’s attitudes about media violence

A sample of 169 first- and third-grade children, selected because of their high exposure to television violence, was randomly divided into an experimental and a control group. Over the course of 2 years, the experimental subjects were ex-posed to two treatments designed to reduce the likelihood of their imitating the aggressive behaviors they observed on TV. The control group received comparable neutral treatments. By the end of the second year, the experimental subjects were rated as significantly less aggressive by their peers, and the relation between vi-olence viewing and aggressiveness was diminished in the experimental group. Aggressive behavior in humans is known to be related to a number of physiological, psychological, familial, and cultural factors as well as the specific learning conditions to which the child is exposed (Bandura, 1977; Baron, 1977;Berkowitz, 1974a;Eron, Walder, & Lefkowitz, 1971). However, the exact pro