Film And Empathy Essay

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The Impact of Violence in Film and TV on Empathy

The effects of violence in film and TV on people has been greatly studied, especially in relation to consequent violent behaviour and psychological impact and trauma on children, teenagers and young adults. However, most studies point towards inconsistent findings, making it difficult to draw accurate conclusions from them (Felson, 2000). Nonetheless, the majority of them seem to look for findings in the viewer’s behaviour and reaction to direct exposure to violence. Thus, if every possible effect, both on physical and psychological levels, was separately and thoroughly studied, without the expectation of immediate and obvious findings, maybe we could then analyse them as a whole and finally have a homogeneous conclusion on whether violence in film and TV does have a negative impact on society or not. Therefore, in this essay I will narrow down my analytic frame by exposing and analysing the impact of violence in film and TV on the viewer’s empathy and how that affect humans as a society.

desensitization refers to the gradual reduction in responsiveness to an arousal-eliciting stimulus as a …show more content…

That is, violence in films stereotypes both the average aggressor and the victim when these do not match official records. For example, according to Warr, M. and Stafford, M. (1983), even though most people would say women and the elderly are the most likely to experience violence and crime due to their vulnerability, according to official records, in real life, the victims are black young males more often than not . Meaning that, even if film and TV do generate empathy for victims, it does it in an unrealistic way that can not be applied to real life. This indicating that, not only is TV and film generating an unnecessary fear in society, it is distracting us from what we should in fact be more cautious

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