Zillmann 11 Cantor: Fright Reactions to Mass Media

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Zillmann 11Cantor Fright Reactions to Mass Media

• http//youtube.com/watch?vF8JOhsBq1iI
• http//youtube.com/watch?vXmp2STYR1Og
• http//youtube.com/watch?vAZl0SAvinEc
• http//youtube.com/watch?v6BEsZMvrq-Ifeaturerel
  ated

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Fear Summary What we have seen 1

• Gerbner heavy viewers fear the world more, but
• Size of effects is small
• Effects of other variables were not controlled
  (e.g. actual crime in neighborhood)
• Survey-style research may reduce short-term
  effects
• Zillmann Watt and Krull media violence is
  arousing, fear-inducing material is, too.
• Bandura Berkowitz punishment of aggression and
  showing effects reduces viewer aggression

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Fear Summary What we have seen 2

• Lefkowitz, Eron, Walder and Huesmann
• Parental aggression and lack of nurturance
  produce psychopathology and aggression
• Television plays a comparatively minor role

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Cantors Approach

• Most of her own research is experimental (the
  effects should be larger than Gerbners)
• She is very careful to control out confounding
  factors, etc.
• Fright immediate emotional reaction, but anxiety
  and distress may last longer, even when viewers
  know they are watching fiction.
• Young children and dogs are frightened by
  visual material older children and adults are
  frightened by conceptual material about what
  could happen.

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Her Literature Review

• Everybody is frightened at some time.
• A few viewers have nightmares and other signs of
  distress extraneous variables?.
• Some viewers react more extremely when
  fear-inducing media occur at the same time as
  other stress.
• Fear can be conceived of as a response involving
  cognitions, motor behavior, and excitatory
  reactions that, except under extreme conditions,
  prepare the individual to flee from danger.
  college?

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Stimulus Generalization

• Stimulus Generalization transfer of fear from a
  specific danger to similar situations, etc.
• Fear-inducing factors
• Dangers and injuries
• Distortions of natural forms dogs do this
• Experience of endangerment and fear by others
  empathy, mirror system

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Developmental Trends

• Young children fear the visual, and fantastic
• Young children respond well to visual
  desensitization, but may not respond well to
  verbal coping e.g. rational-emotive
• Older children and adults fear the
  conceptual/abstract what could happen and
  realistic
• Older children and adults respond well to visual
  desensitization and verbal coping

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Gender Differences

• Females may appear to react more than males, but
  that may be because females are more likely to
  admit to fears.

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Playing the Fear Card Be vewwy, vewwy afwaid!

• Old research showed that extreme fear appeals (if
  you dont brush your teeth, you are more likely
  to have a heart attack) are counter-productive.
• But, there are lots of fear appeals currently in
  the media
• Bush, Cheney, Hillary Clinton, .
• Drug advertisements for diseases you dont know
  you have
• Have the patterns of fear effects changed?

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Playing the Fear Card 2

• Cantor and Nathanson (1996) Fear of events in
  the news increased with age.
• Cantor, et al., (1986) Older children and adults
  increased in fear after TV movie about nuclear
  attack.
• Cantor, Mares, Oliver (1993) older children
  feared spread of Gulf War 1
• http//www.joannecantor.com/index.html

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Cantor and Nathanson 1

• 43 of parents reported their children being
  frightened by TV content and 37 by the news.
• Older children were more likely to be frightened
  by the news compared to kindergarteners (p 0.03).
• With increasing age, children were less likely to
  be frightened by fantastic media depictions (p 0.04).

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Cantor and Nathanson 2

• News fear most often reacted to stories about
  stranger violence (35), news from abroad (32),
  natural disasters (25), or child victims.
• Younger children were more likely to be
  frightened by natural disaster stories (p 0.001), while older children were reacted more to
  stranger violence (p
• Younger children were more likely to express
  their fear that similar events would happen to
  them (p