Citation

Muller JN, Moroco A, Loloi J, Portolese A, Wakefield BH, King TS, Olympia R. Cureus 2020; 12(2): e6843.

Affiliation

Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Curēus)

DOI

10.7759/cureus.6843

PMID

32181080

PMCID

PMC7053689

Abstract

The objective of this study was to describe and quantify acts of violence depicted in a select number of superhero-based films, further stratified by protagonist/antagonist characters and gender. A total of 10 superhero-based films released in 2015-2016 were analyzed by five independent reviewers. The average number of acts of violence associated with protagonist and antagonist characters for all included films was 22.7 and 17.5 mean events per hour, respectively (p=0.019). The average number of acts of violence associated with male and female characters for all included films was 33.4 and 6.5 mean events per hour, respectively (p<0.001). The most common acts of violence for all major characters were "fighting", "use of a lethal weapon", "bullying/intimidation/torture", "destruction of property", and "murder" (14.9, 11.4, 3.5, 3.4, and 2.4 mean events per hour, respectively). Based on our sample of superhero-based films, acts of violence were associated more with protagonist characters and male characters.

Copyright © 2020, Muller et al.

Language: en

Keywords

film; gender; superheroes; violence