In this study, we examine whether youth who are exposed to more weapons violence are subsequently more likely to behave violently with weapons. We use data collected with a 3-cohort, 4-wave, 10-year longitudinal study of 426 high-risk youth from Flint, Michigan, who...
Background Many scientific studies have shown that the mere presence of guns can increase aggression, an effect dubbed the “weapons effect.” The current research examines a potential source of the weapons effect: guns depicted in top-selling films. Methods...
Importance More US children die by accidental gun use than children in other developed countries. One factor that can influence children’s interest in guns is exposure to media containing guns. Objective To test whether children who see a movie containing guns will...
Question Does exposure to violent video games cause children to engage in dangerous behavior around real firearms? Findings In this randomized clinical trial, 220 children aged 8 to 12 years were assigned to play a video game in 1 of 3 conditions: with gun violence,...
The mere presence of weapons can increase aggression—called the “weapons effect.” Weapons are theorized to increase aggression by priming aggressive thoughts. This research tested the robustness of the weapons effect using two large representative samples of American...
