Citation

Gunter B, Furnham A. Pers. Individ. Dif. 1983; 4(3): 315-321.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1983, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0191-8869(83)90153-8

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to investigate relationships between individuals' personality characteristics and their perceptions of violent TV portrayals. A panel of 40 viewers rated brief violent episodes from five categories of programming, contemporary British crime-detective series, American police series, westerns, science-fiction series and cartoons on eight scales. These responses were then related to viewers' scores on the N, E and P dimensions of the EPQ. Results showed that violent scores from contemporary settings were rated as more serious than scores from non-contemporary and fantastic settings. In addition, viewers exhibited individual differences in ratings of TV violence which were related to certain of their EPQ scores. In particular, high N scorers tended to perceive violence generally, but especially that from contemporary British drama, as more serious than did low N scorers. This study indicates the need to include personality measures in the analysis of audience reactions to TV violence.

Language: en