ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author examines the preoccupation of media studies with violence. William Fisher and Guy Grenier measured the aggressive/violent content in self-generated fantasies, violent content in Thematic Apperception Test scores, scores in attitudes toward women, acceptance of interpersonal violence, and rape myth acceptance. The author also examines whether the social learning theory is a truly distinct form of learning. The inference that social learning theorists draw is that the subjects equate the females in the film with the female confederate, but it is just as plausible that the female confederates are a greater source of arousal per se than male confederates. The author explores some peculiarities of the logic of experimental social psychology, the difference between statistical significance and effect sizes, and the policy significance of decontextualized effect studies. He also explores the extrascientific incentives that underlie the media effects academy.
