Risky Behavior Comes From The Movies

Risky Behavior Comes From The Movies.
Violent motion picture characters are also apposite to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and engage in sexual behavior in films rated seemly for children over 12, according to a new study. "Parents should be aware that youth who watch PG-13 movies will be exposed to characters whose intensity is linked to other more common behaviors, such as alcohol and sex, and that they should cogitate on whether they want their children exposed to that influence," said study lead author Amy Bleakley, a protocol research scientist at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center. It's not unobstructed what this means for children who watch popular movies, however.

There's intense debate among experts over whether energy on screen has any direct connection to what people do in real life. Even if there is a link, the new findings don't indicate whether the violent characters are glamorized or portrayed as villains. And the study's outlining of violence was broad, encompassing 89 percent of popular G- and PG-rated movies. The study, which was published in the January printing of the journal Pediatrics, sought to find out if violent characters also wrapped up in other risky behaviors in films viewed by teens.

Bleakley and her colleagues have published several studies lesson that kids who watch more fictional violence on screen become more violent themselves. Their research has come under berate from critics who argue it's difficult to gauge the impact of movies, TV and video games when so many other things upon children. In September 2013, more than 200 people from academic institutions sent a proclamation to the American Psychological Association saying it wrongly relied on "inconsistent or unconvincing evidence" in its attempts to connect violence in the media to real-life violence.

For the new study, the researchers analyzed almost 400 top-grossing movies from 1985 to 2010 with an optic on violence and its connection to sensual behavior, tobacco smoking and alcohol use. The movies in the sample weren't chosen based on their solicit to children, so adult-oriented films little seen by kids might have been included. The researchers found that about 90 percent of the movies included at least one significance of violence involving a main character.

Violence was defined as effectively any attempt to physically harm someone else, even in fun. A fundamental character also engaged in sexual behavior (a category that includes kissing on the lips and entrancing dancing), smoked tobacco or drank alcohol in 77 percent of the movies. These co-occurring behaviors were less base in G-rated movies. Movies rated PG-13 and R had similar rates of touchy behaviors, although R-rated films were more likely to show tobacco use and explicit sex.

Bleakley said the Hollywood ratings system, which has been criticized for being more active about sex than violence, should consider cracking down on movies that show a "compounded portrayal" of touch-and-go activities. Bleakley said that, although the study doesn't mention this, non-violent characters in the same films tied up in about the same levels of sex, drinking and smoking. "Violent characters are being portrayed to all intents and purposes the same as any other character in these films.

Some experts disagree that the study provides cause for concern. Patrick Markey, an colleague professor of psychology at Villanova University, said the study relies on speculation, not facts, anent the potential risk to kids of these on-screen portrayals. Markey also pointed to the lessening in US crime rates over the past 30 years, even as depictions of violence in movies appear to have increased.

Christopher Ferguson, chairman of the emotion department at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., accused the researchers of being "moralistic". They are following "an old-school 'monkey see, ape do' thought on humane behavior that is increasingly falling into disrepute next page. "There's no evidence that this is a public-health concern, nor do the authors of this about provide any evidence of a public-health concern".