Personality affects how people react to violent movies: Study

LONDON — Watching violent movies really does make people more aggressive, but only if they have an abrasive personality to start with, a United States study has shown.

The link between X-rated films and video games and the rise in violent crime has been debated for years, so scientists scanned the brains of two very different groups of people to see what happened as they were shown violent images, in the first study of its kind. They found reactions depended on how aggressive people were to begin with.

The findings published in the science journal PLOS ONE could have implications for intervention programmes seeking to reduce aggressive behaviour starting in childhood.

Dr Nelly Alia-Klein, of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, said: “Our aim was to investigate what is going on in the brains of people when they watch violent movies. We hypothesized that if people have aggressive traits to begin with, they will process violent media in a very different way as compared to non-aggressive people — a theory supported by these findings.”

In the study, 54 men were split into two groups — those who were aggressive, including a history of physical assault, and those who were calmer — after answering a questionnaire.

Their brains were scanned as they watched a succession of shootings and street fights on the first day, emotional but non-violent scenes such as people interacting during a natural disaster on the second and nothing on the third.

While watching violence, the aggressive group had less activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, which controls emotion-related decision-making and self-control. They said they felt more inspired and determined, and less upset or nervous than their non-aggressive counterparts when watching violent, instead of only emotional, scenes. Their blood pressure also went down progressively, while that of the calm groups rose.

When no films were shown, the aggressive participants had unusually high brain activity in a network of regions known to be active when not doing anything in particular. This suggests they have a different brain function map than their non-aggressive peers, said the researchers.

Dr Alia-Klein said: “We hope these results will give educators an opportunity to identify children with aggressive traits and teach them to be more aware of how aggressive material activates them.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH