In the last 10 years there has been
a huge increase in research on
violent video games. Based on five
decades of research on television
and film violence and one decade
of research on video games, we
now have a pretty clear picture of
how exposure to media violence
can increase aggression in both
the immediate situation as well as
in long-term contexts.
Immediately after consuming some
media violence, there is an increase
in aggressive behavior tendencies
because of several factors:
1) Aggressive thoughts increase,
which in turn increase the likelihood
that a mild or ambiguous
provocation will be interpreted
in a hostile fashion
2) Aggressive (or hostile) emotion
increases
3) General arousal (e.g., heart
rate) increases, which tends to
increase the dominant behavioral
tendency
4) Youth learn new forms of aggressive
behaviors by observing
them, and will reenact them
almost immediately afterwards