It’s just a joke: Violence against males in humorous advertising

The main purpose of the Children’s focus group studies was to investigate parents and children’s perception of media violence and explore how television commercial violence might influence children. Longitudinal studies also provide evidence that early life exposure to media violence may lead children to use more aggressive behaviors over an extended period of time. The evidence suggests that the consumption of media violence is one significant risk factor for the development of aggression in children. Subjects were greeted by an experimental assistant as they entered the research laboratory. Both subjects and parents were provided with assent/consent forms and were asked to sign them before proceeding. Another emerging theme centered on the level of perceived parental concern for violence in media especially commercials. Many of the children did not feel that their parents were concerned with media violence in general.