Mixed messages, mixed outcomes: the effects of reconciliation and retaliation story endings on aggression
| Pages | 220-229 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-12-2016-0265 |
| Published date | 10 July 2017 |
| Date | 10 July 2017 |
| Author | Robert D. Ridge,Brooke E. Dresden,Felicia L. Farley,Christopher E. Hawk |
Mixed messages, mixed outcomes:
the effects of reconciliation and retaliation
story endings on aggression
Robert D. Ridge, Brooke E. Dresden, Felicia L. Farley and Christopher E. Hawk
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of reconciliation and retaliation story endings
on subsequent aggressive affect and behavior.
Design/methodology/approach –Participants took part in two ostensibly unrelated studies. The first
involved reading a violent story, attributed to a biblical or secular source, which ended in either brutal
retaliation or peaceful reconciliation. They then took part in a second study in which they completed measures
of aggressive affect and behavior.
Findings –Participants told that their stories came from a secular source experienced a more aggressive
affect than those told that their stories came from a biblical source. In terms of behavioral aggression, a
significant difference in effect of the story ending on males and females emerged. Females who read the
reconciliation ending had lower levels of behavioral aggression than females who read the retaliation ending.
Conversely, males who read the reconciliation ending had higher levels of behavioral aggression than males
who read the retaliation ending.
Research limitations/implications –These findings suggest that media depictions of prosocial reactions
to unprovoked aggression may not reduce aggression in men.
Practical implications –Results are discussed in ter ms of moral values espoused by women and men
and suggest that anti-v iolence messages may be st rengthened to the exte nt they address the value s
important to both.
Originality/value –This study extends research on violent media exposure to a burgeoning literature on
reading violent content.
Keywords Retaliation, Literature, Reconciliation, Aggression, Media violence, Moral values
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Over the past few decades,the effects of media violence have garnered substantial attentionfrom
researchers and the public. Violent media consumption has been shown to cause increased
aggressivebehavior (Adachi and Willoughby,2011; Breuer et al., 2013), cognition(Anderson et al.,
2004; Carnageyand Anderson, 2005), and affect(Bushman and Huesmann, 2006;Shafer, 2012),
and increasesin aggression have resultedfrom exposure to violenceon television (Christensenand
Wood, 2007; Murray, 2008), in movies (Savage and Yancey, 2008), in video games (Anderson
et al., 2010; Sherry, 2001), and in literature (Coyne et al., 2012; Stockdale et al., 2013).
Even scriptural violence has been implicated (Bushman et al.,2007).Bushmanet al. (2007)
exposed religious and non-religious participants to violence attributed to a biblical or secular
source and found that“scriptural violence sanctioned by God [increased] aggression,especially in
believers”(p. 204). Thus, even exposure to violence in media that is typically associated with
prosocial messages (e.g. the Bible) can cause one to behave more aggressively.
Recent research has begun to investigate how exposure to media violence affects helpful,
as opposed to aggressive, behavior. A study by Bushman and Anderson (2009) and a
Received 15 December 2016
Revised 27 January 2017
Accepted 31 January 2017
Robert D. Ridge is an Associate
Professor and Brooke E.
Dresden, Felicia L. Farley and
Christopher E. Hawk are
Graduate Students, all at the
Department of Psychology,
Brigham Young University,
Provo, Utah, USA.
PAGE220
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JOURNAL OF AGGRESSION, CONFLICTAND PEACE RESEARCH
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VOL. 9 NO. 3 2017, pp.220-229, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1759-6599 DOI 10.1108/JACPR-12-2016-0265
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