In Manteca, California, two young boys murdered a disabled man by violently kicking, stabbing, beating and finally choking him. When being questioned by the police as to why the boys poured salt in the dying mans wounds, one of the boys responded, "Oh I don't know. I just seen it on TV- (Levine, 1996, 71). Instances like this are all too common in today's society. Violence on television is overwhelming and the negative affect it has on viewers is frightening. It has become evident that violence glamorized on television causes viewers to learn aggressive behavior.
According to Leonard Eron, one of the country's foremost authorities on media, "There can no longer be any doubt that heavy exposure to televised violence is one of the causes of aggressive behavior, crime and violence in society- (Levine, 1996, 4). There are a variety of reasons one might expect viewers to learn aggressive behavior from the media. First, viewers may model their behavior after ideas on television that they otherwise might not have considered. Second, the frequency and legitimacy of violent acts on television may increase the tendency of viewers to model their behavior after what they see. Third, viewers may become desensitized by the abundance of violence viewed on television. Finally, people may get a false presumption of the world based on the influx of violence on television. The first reason one might expect viewers to learn aggressive behavior from the media is that viewers may model their behavior after ideas on television that they otherwise may not have considered. There are a variety of theories and studies on how people model their behavior after violence viewed on television. Famous psychologist Albert Bandura proposed one of the most influential theories of media-related aggression. Bandura's social learning theory emphasizes the tendency of viewers to imitate violent acts on television. According to the social learning theory, people acquire aggressive attitudes by observing others (Bushman, 1998).
