Exposure to Violent Media: The Effects of Songs With Violent Lyrics on Aggressive Thoughts and Feelings

• Published in: Journal of personality and social psychology 2003-05, Vol.84 (5), p.960-971
• Main Authors: Anderson, Craig A, Carnagey, Nicholas L, Eubanks, Janie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aggression - psychology; Aggressiveness; Analysis of Variance; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition - physiology; Cognitions; Emotional States; Emotions - physiology; Experiments; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hostility; Human; Humans; Male; Mass Media; Mass Media - statistics & numerical data; Media; Music; Music - psychology; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social impact; Social interactions. Communication. Group processes; Social psychology; Songs; Students - psychology; Violence; Violence - psychology; Violence - statistics & numerical data; Wit and Humor as Topic - psychology; Word Association Tests - statistics & numerical data
• ISSN: 0022-3514; 1939-1315
• DOI: 10.1037/0022-3514.84.5.960

Five experiments examined effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and hostile feelings. Experiments 1, 3, 4 and 5 demonstrated that college students who heard a violent song felt more hostile than those who heard a similar but nonviolent song. Experiments 2-5 demonstrated a similar increase in aggressive thoughts. These effects replicated across songs and song types (e.g., rock, humorous, nonhumorous). Experiments 3-5 also demonstrated that trait hostility was positively related to state hostility but did not moderate the song lyric effects. Discussion centers on the potential role of lyric content on aggression in short-term settings, relation to catharsis and other media violence domains, development of aggressive personality, differences between long-term and short-term effects, and possible mitigating factors.