Physiological Responses to Viewing Scripted Versus Real Media Violence Violence

While it is generally accepted that violent themes in media entertainment can affect behavior (aggression), few studies have been conducted on viewing real-life violent acts in media form. While many studies have investigated violent behavioral tendencies in relation to violent media and video game exposure, our experiment focuses on the physiological response to violent media. Specifically, we studied the difference in physiological arousal between viewing scripted media violence and non-scripted, real-life media violence to determine if there is a difference in response to each type of media. Although respiration rate and heart rate were both elevated between baseline measurements and viewing violent media, whether real or scripted, only heart rate was statistically significant when compared between the two conditions. Though individuals showed increases in the area of alpha, beta, theta, and overall EEG waves while viewing scripted and non-scripted videos, the difference between the two experimental conditions was not statistically significant.