Remember when all
those fussy Moral Majority types said that exposure to music with
violent lyrics can prompt aggressive behavior? Seems they're right,
according to a study published in the May issue of the Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology.
The study, conducted by
researchers in Iowa and Texas, found a link between listening to
violent song lyrics and feelings of aggression and hostility,
bolstering arguments that such content can lead to violent behavior -
a finding that belies the notion that violent music provides a
cathartic release for anger and negative feelings.
That may not come as a shock,
given that studies examining violence on TV, in movies and in video
games have reached similar conclusions. This study, "Exposure to
Violent Media: The Effects of Songs With Violent Lyrics on Aggressive
Thoughts and Feelings," extends the same hypothesis to another
pop-culture medium, lead researcher Craig A. Anderson
says.
"There really hasn't been much
research on music lyrics, certainly no conclusive research had been
done prior to this, so this research in a sense fills a gap," says
Anderson, chairman of the psychology department at Iowa State
University. "We've known for years from TV research and movie
research and, more recently, video game research that content
matters."
The study consisted of five
experiments designed to measure participants' reactions to violent
songs. The first two assessed the effects of violent lyrics on
hostile feelings and aggressive thoughts that college student
volunteers demonstrated after listening to a pair of songs by the
band Tool, one with lyrics deemed violent and one considered
nonviolent. The third experiment expanded on the first two by adding
a larger selection of songs, including pairs of tunes by Suicidal
Tendencies, the Beastie Boys and Run D.M.C. The last two experiments
studied the combined effect of violent, but humorous, song lyrics on
aggressive thought. They included tunes by Johnny Cash - "A Boy Named
Sue" - and "Weird Al" Yankovic.
"Each study has its own particular
strength and weakness, and by doing multiple studies on the same
hypothesis, but with slightly different design - in some cases
different measures, in other cases different songs - if in doing that
you get similar results, then you should be more confident that
you're actually converging on a correct answer," Anderson
says.
Results from all five experiments
strongly suggest that listening to songs with violent lyrics
increases feelings of aggression, at least in the short term. Such
feelings can influence the way people view social interactions,
leading them to interpret ambiguous actions as hostile and react more
aggressively in turn, writes Anderson and his colleagues, Nicholas L.
Carnagey from Iowa State and Janie Eubanks from the Texas Department
of Human Services.
The findings support what moral
watchdogs have argued for years, and one of them, Sen. Joseph I.
Lieberman, D-Conn., says the paper is an important tool in
understanding the effects of violent music.
"This study is another reminder of
the potential health risks posed by media violence, and of the need
for parents to pay attention to their children's media diets,"
Lieberman says. "But as the authors themselves say, it also shows
that we need to know more about exactly how violent lyrics as well as
violent images affect consumers, particularly children."
Lieberman says he will soon
propose a new federal program to fund more research into both the
positive and negative consequences of electronic media
use.
That's fine, says a
record-industry lobbying group, but the ultimate responsibility still
rests with parents.
"We agree that parents should be
educated so they can make their own determinations about what media
content is appropriate for their children," says Amy Weiss, a
spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of
America.
The group made no comment
concerning the study's findings.
Anderson acknowledges that groups
advocating stricter controls on media content are likely to embrace
his research, but he notes that scientific studies and public policy
aren't synonymous.
"Of course the whole public policy
question is really much more difficult than just the research
question," says Anderson, the father of two teenage children and a
self-described fan of Black Sabbath, Steppenwolf and the Who. "A lot
of times, people don't get that, that the research questions are
questions that have a real, honest-to-God discoverable answer. Public
policy is never that clear. There are legal issues that are relevant,
but there are also personal-values issues that are relevant."