Young Adult Media Violence Reaction and Cognitive Perception

Below is the full text of my final research project for the CollegeBoard Advanced Placement Capstone Research program, which I completed my senior year of high school. This paper was awarded a score of 5 by the CollegeBoard - the highest possible score on an Advanced Placement submission. The Capstone Program, which consists of two classes - AP Seminar and AP Research - taken over two years, results in the awarding of the AP Capstone Diploma if the candidate receives a score of 3 or higher on both Capstone courses, and a score of 3 or higher on at least four other AP CollegeBoard course exams throughout high school.

This project was independently researched and organized by me over the span of an entire school year. Institutional Review Board approval was granted for the use of human subjects in my data collection. As part of the submission process, this 18-page, 4,940-word paper was submitted for review alongside a graded 20 minute presentation with three oral defense questions. Throughout the process, I consistently found myself disillusioned with my research inquiry, and at many points considered changing to something with a more accessible topicality. Although this paper was the product of months of research and coordinated testing of a total of 40 human subjects, I carried the expected doubts as to the efficacy and quality of my work when I hit that final submit button.

Spawning from my love of cinema, and my interest in the writings of Jean Baudrillard on the topic of post-modernism, my project lead me to discover incredible corners of research as its topic area grew, from Hong Kong action films, to psychological reactions to internet linguistics, and the impact of 9/11 on the field of Media Studies. As someone who prides themselves on being able to tackle large workloads, I was surprised at the task which I created for myself when I chose this project. I created my own experimental phenomenology study, tested my own participants, learned (amateur) qualitative data analysis, and even read a book on postmodern philosophy that was entirely in Spanish.

In the end I found my (admittedly minimal) confidence vindicated when I checked my score release to learn that my project had been graded a perfect 5 out of 5. My Capstone research was something I had thought about completing since 8th grade, while I worked on my TPSP (Texas Performance Standards Project), and it became something that I anxiously, obsessively, and manically thought about during my senior year as the April 30th due date loomed closer and closer. As a demonstration of my pride, I decided to upload the entirety of my paper onto MAMMOTH for anyone to read.

Special Acknowledgements (not included in original paper):

Before you read my paper, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank a few important people. Firstly, the friends, acquaintances, and strangers that participated in the actual study. For ethical reasons I will never be able to refer to you by name, but I am forever grateful that you took the time to sit through a montage of disturbingly graphic acts of violence just because I asked. Next I want to thank everybody involved in my AP Research class, Kelsey, Rebecca, Safiya, Teddy, Ben, Krish and Tanay. Your peer review suggestions were consistently ignored, but at the very least I always knew that if my draft was getting less notes asking me to "explain better," then I was on the right path. Lastly I owe my thanks to my AP Research teacher, Mrs. Garza. Although you weren't allowed to give feedback on our projects, your guidance and support was invaluable.

INTRO

Researchers in Japan have found that Chimpanzees have the ability to comprehend and even remember elements of aggression when presented with films. This study, conducted by Fumihiro Kano and Satoshi Hirata of the University of Konstanz and Kyoto University, respectively, created two violent clips of a man in an ape costume – made specially for the experiment – to present Chimpanzees and Bonobos with violent content in order to gauge their responsiveness and comprehension using a new technology developed by Kano which allows for the tracking of eye movement (Kano). After showing the film twice, on the second day the researchers found that the primates had the ability to predict where the stimulus of aggression would come from in the video. This recognition is different from conditioning, since the videos were not shown repeatedly. While a human may consider the costumed video to be noticeably ridiculous, for the apes, the suspension of disbelief was deeper in nature.

The ability of our most base relatives to understand patterns in video media perhaps serve to prove two things about the human experience with television and film. First, that our instinctual reaction to violence is determined by past experiences, and second, that the quality of production and tonal genre of the video can – at least for humans – play a significant role in the viewer interaction with the stimulus material (Thurlow 670). The human mind differs significantly from our primitive cousins, the chimpanzees, a delta through which the value for gaining understanding to our interaction with media violence arises. Academic literature on the subject already exists, with three studies from 1996, 2010, and 2011 being utilized as background research to guide this study’s trajectory.

In order to properly expand the niche into which this research falls, it is quintessential that the unique elements of not only this study’s objective, but also broader developments in status quo, be understood to their depths. Through the use of three perspectives, the research gap can best be observed as a contemporary iteration of past adolescent media-violence studies that interacts with the postmodernist categorization of visual media under the school of Baudrillardian thought, with an added emphasis on the phenomenological experience of participants facing the increased aggregation of niche content across streaming platforms. These three perspectives, which are labeled as Cultural Development, Economic Motivation, and Past Experimentation in this paper, were chosen because of their contribution to explaining the changes in the global mediascape that have changed access to violence. Not only is violence more common in popular content, it is also more accessible for audiences of all ages (Felson 106, Bottomley 151). These films and tv shows vary widely in their depiction of violence, whether that be from differences in genre, tone, or mood, or from differences in what is depicted – blood, gore, physical assault, gun violence, or vehicular crashes. Regardless of their little differences, most media violence is the same, and the most important cases of media studies research are those that make strides towards gaining understanding of the processing and experiential nature of how people interact with the content they watch at superficial conscious as well as subconscious instinctive levels (Felson 104).

LITERATURE REVIEW

Cultural Developments

As of circa the late 1960s, it has been widely understood but philosophers and other media academics that the world had entered the era of post-modernity. A period of cultural evolution that encompassed literature, film, television, philosophical thought and music. Synthesizing two varied definitions by the philosophers Fredric Jameson and Linda Hutcheon, a succinct definition of postmodernism can be understood as the product of an increasing reliance on technology in tandem with the political situation of a highly capitalist world having created a new categorization of both and era and its respective media exports. These pieces of media each relying on similar ideological concerns over the inability to transcend beyond superficial truth, and therefore, the intrinsic nature of all media to be facile. Postmodernity is a move away from the prior era of modernity, in which endorsement and depiction was direct, concise, and objective (Felluga).

While the era of postmodernism can mostly be seen as a conceptual time period, the film and television industry of the era is undergoing the transition into the idea of “hyperreality,” in which subjective truth and any depiction of reality in the aforementioned media are fused to become one concept for the audience. Making it impossible to differentiate the uncontaminated truth from the inspired recollection. Due to the effects of the postmodern era in influencing content, its impacts on influencing the actual individual viewer are a topic of marked interest for many academics in the field (Smith).

In the seminal French text, Simulacra and Simulation, sociologist and philosopher Jean Baudrillard posits that the general public’s relationship with cinema and video media in the era of postmodernity is rapidly shifting. The process of filmmaking becoming a reproductive element of itself, as content begins to become references of other past content, rather than being tethered to the real world. The Era of Simulation is, in the words of Baudrillard, joined with the resurrection of artificial symbolisms as a method of identification and relatability for the audience (Baudrillard 4). What this entails is a reduction in genuine meaning, as the ideations of the content are first passed through layers of the web of references, trends, and relevance. Even the most transcendental of media is still influenced through years of repurposed simulacra. For the viewer, this era of content has the ability to deeply influence personal perception on self, history, and as this paper seeks to spotlight, violence. At a certain point, the viewer is unable to differentiate between their own perspective, their perspective as a memory of a reference, and their subconscious memory’s references since the three are each mediated through the perception of experiential video content (MacNeill 441).

The impacts of simulacra are wide reaching into daily life. Especially amidst status quo. As identified in not only Simulacra and Simulation, but other philosophical theses as well, such as those of Fredric Jameson and Jean-Francois Lyotard, the postmodern affinity for the “metanarrative,” or a hyper-aware retelling of events that shifts the representation and legitimization of truth towards the viewer (MacNeill 391). Creating the burden of perspective as the defining factor for understanding, and unique personal interpretation of truth as the new meta-cognitive interaction for the viewer, rather than presenting objective truth and direct morality.

In the paper Jean Baudrillard and Cinema: The Problems of Technology, Realism and History, Gerry Coulter explains that the works of Jean Baudrillard situate the intersection of film and philosophy as the outlook for the future conversation over the development of viewer interactions with film and media. Coulter paraphrases Baudrillard in stating that cinema is playing its role in the creation of a profound uncertainty for the future. That the video content of the 20th and 21st centuries contribute to the general understanding of our culture, yet we do not yet know the intricacies of this affect (Coulter 19). Surely the meta-discursive and unobjective perpetuity of truth in the era of postmodernity is affecting the comprehension and ontological interaction of wider audiences across the world (especially English-speaking audiences). The bottom line of most theorizations over postmodernism are that media from this period is continuously transforming the meaning of reality, and that this perspective only further emulates itself into daily life.

Economic Motivations

Behind the surface level presentation of cinema, there is a deep-running connection to broader socioeconomic trends in globalization and consumer patterns. This concept was proposed in a WIRED article in 2004 by Chris Anderson titled The Long Tail. The basic idea of the Long Tail was that as consumer habits become more individualized – as can be seen through the transition away from exclusive theater viewing of new releases to individual film purchases through renting, video discs, or subscription services, and later: streaming – so would the design model through which large corporations produced these media types. Since the large audience of consumers would no longer be each buying into the same product as they were once forced into participating in without extensive choice, their diversifying interests would incentivize the creation of a greater variety of options. As the Long Tail predicts, this shift would play out as a transition towards more niche content which small groups of people would enjoy, with so many different interests being appealed to, that the same rates of audiences would continue to be pulled in as compared to the prior period where a few films were created that appealed to the majority of audiences which held a single or very few interested that were shared by all (Anderson).

Being from 2004, Anderson’s theory is limited by its inability to predict the changes not only to how media would be accessed – which we now understand to be large scale streaming services that started as collections of studio produced content (that had wide public releases, and were then moved to direct video) – as well as the changes that have occurred to change access to watching content, such as the sharp decrease in consumer price of a new television set, or the increased ability to watch a movie on essentially any device (mobile or not) (including fridges).

Revisiting the theory presented in Anderson’s original 2004 essay, researcher Andrew Bottomley contextualized the more modern implementations of the Long Tail in his 2019 paper Giant Pools of Content: Theorizing Aggregation in Online Media Distribution. Bottomley’s research expands the implications of The Long Tail into the 2010s and takes on the perspective of a 15-year retrospective to derive the conclusion that the streaming model has in fact incentivized an increase in more niche content. This leads the companies to only produce what they predict will be the most successful, relying on trend cycles, familiar archetypes, tried-and-true tropes, and especially appealing subject material, such as violence, that is likely to increase viewership and therefore profit (Bottomley 149-56).

A relevant example of the Long Tail theory in practice is the rise of the action-film genre exported from Hong Kong. Published in the journal Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, researcher Laikwan Pang’s New Asian Cinema and Its Circulation of Violence explores the role which economic success and pressure to achieve global competitive status against American films pushed filmmakers from Hong Kong to increasingly raise the level and mortality of violence in their films, since it was seen as a widely reliable method of garnering success for a film (Pang 167). This development of a broad identity out of adherence to violence as a medium for reflecting and extending the absurdity of the desire for safety in daily life that is inhibited by the prevalence of exposure to real-world violence (though it is valuable to note that inevitably, this perspective has likely been influenced by layers of media conditioning of the presence of violence).

Ultimately, the key factor in interpreting and adjusting a media violence study to fit the needs of a modern audience is the consideration of habitual exposure to violence through content on a daily basis.

Past Experimentation

When looking at how to properly formulate an inquiry that interacts with the intricacies of phenomenology and media studies, with the intersection of studies focused on exposure to violence, it is important to consider past experimentation that has contributed to the greater academic canon of the subject. In order to understand where a philosophical research project on the topic of media violence plays a role, three past experiments on violence exposure can be consulted.

Firstly, in 1996, researcher Richard Felson published Mass Media Effects on Violent Behavior, a study which looked at the effects of continued exposure to violence for replication in adolescents. Ultimately, Felson found that the literature and experimentation on the subject was inconclusive. With contradictory perspectives from different academics within the field, the idea of whether or not seeing violence in film and TV actually influences adolescents into becoming more aggressive or violent is not fully proven. Felson argues that admittedly, there is still a small percentage of people who take direct effect from exposure to violence, and that when translated into a larger population, this impact would likely lead to cause for concern (Felson 108).

Expanding off the works of academics such as Felson, the 2010 paper Television Commercial Violence: Potential Effects On Children by Deanne Brocato et al looked at the influence of continued exposure to violence through television advertising. Brocato’s work reinforces the assertion that the inclusion of violence is becoming more pervasive in the media of daily life. As out of the nearly $17 billion dollars spent in 2006 on advertising to children and adolescents, the majority of said advertisements included violence to increase engagement. Similar to Felson, Brocato does not draw a firm conclusion on the impact violence exposure to correlation with replication – but does expand on the concept from a more ontological viewpoint. Brocato suggests that inevitably, any generations growing in a world surrounding by violence in film and TV are going to form a habit of reinforcing “aggressive knowledge structures,” thereby forming stronger habits and perspectives that support an affinity for both committing violence and consuming violent content (Brocato 95-107). This conclusion is an essential factor in understanding what new literature can contribute to the field of media violence exposure studies. Rather than focusing on whether or not violence creates a short term or long-term reaction within participants, the crux lies in achieving understanding of how these reactions formulate, both through neurological and cognitive processes, as well as how different factors influence this perspective.

In 2011, researcher Maren Strenziok and a team of six others used MRIs to get closer to understanding how the brain undertakes the creation of new perspectives when continuously exposed to violence in media. The study Fronto-Parietal Regulation Of Media Violence Exposure In Adolescents: A Multi-Method Study utilized a group of adolescents ages 14 though 17 to see the brain’s processing of violent stimuli. The conclusion of this study saw that the emotion-attention network of the brain was sufficiently positively stimulated so that an affinity and gradual desensitization would develop (Strenziok 545). This research provides invaluable insight into the brain’s anatomical connection to violence yet does not go in-depth into the experience of the brain consciousness.

GAP

There exists valuable research on the subject of a person’s reaction to violence. Yet those studies do not grapple with the increasing rate of violence being included in film and TV for the sake of driving viewer engagement. Nor does past studies look at the role which developments within the culture surrounding mass media have had on the mindset viewers have. There is much needed work to be done to expand the academic understanding of a person’s ontological relation to media violence, especially when the role postmodernist hyperreality plays is taken into account. Eventually, the following research question was formed to test this. How do representations of violence affect the cognitive perception of adolescents in a shifting post-modern mediascape?

HYPOTHESES

While it is difficult to create an in depth, and multidimensional picture of how cognitive processing works for each individual, and how this ideation happens for adolescents in response to a stimulus. It is fully possible to create layers of responses that can be cross referenced to achieve a succinct ontological product of data on the mindset through which individuals experience their day-to-day. As for preliminary hypotheses from the results of this study, some educated predictions include that participants who watch more film or tv on a regular basis will have minimal negative reactions, such as shock or discomfort, from the depicted violence. This category of participants with stronger consumptive habits will likely also find themselves more interested in the stimulus content being presented to them. Overall, the stimulus clips used for the study will likely not be perceived as more violent than regular viewings. Participants with stronger consumptive habits will likely also experience greater positive emotions, such as alertness and valence. Secondly, there will likely appear a relationship between the viewing habits participants have prior to participation in the study, and their reported passivity to the content they watch. People who watch more will be more likely to actively engage with that content, while participants who view less media on a daily basis will likely consider themselves the type of viewers to sit back and neglect engaging with what’s on screen.

METHOD

Following the methodology done by Strenziok et al in Fronto-Parietal Regulation of Media Violence Exposure in Adolescents: A Multi-Method Study, in which researchers studied the neurological impacts of viewing violent clips, this study was formulated to replicate the conditions of a stimulus response in the form of an experimental phenomenology study. Using a balance of watching video clips and responding to engaging survey questions in an interview, the approach of the study could ideally determine both response and perspective – the immediate and unconscious experiences of media consumption. In the Strenziok et al study – which was conducted in 2011 – adolescents were asked to view violent videos, then react individually to each, expressed on scales of violence and excitement (Strenziok 545). Taking basis from the methodology of Strenziok’s stimulus-response-question study, this study is formulated around the pursuit of understanding a participant’s emotional and experiential state when faced with violent content.

This study was made following the ideals of a combination of an experimental study – meant to look at how people react to certain stimuli; and a phenomenology study – meant to look at how people experience unique phenomena in the world.

For this study, participants – which were sourced from two local high schools to best cull a variety of subjects who would vary in media habits and tastes, yet were all within a similar age range to ensure similarities in upbringing in a post-9/11 America – were asked to view a series of clips taken from commercially available filmography from the last 23 years in order to best replicate the type of content which they might be exposed to on a regular basis (Washburn). These participants were chosen from varied social groups and activity involvement.

Prior to the viewing, participants filled out a questionnaire over their personal opinions on their viewing habits, and their exposure to violence in film (see APPENDIX A for docket of questions). Films used in the montage could all be identified as “postmodernist.” An admittedly and intentionally vague label used to define not only the current period of media, but certain genric elements of story and stylization themselves (See APPENDIX B for full list of films). A duality present in the source material of the clips, a selection curated from online listings determining the films as falling under the umbrella term “postmodern.” Following the viewing of the videos, participants were asked questions (as listed in APPENDIX A) which pertained to their experience. The clips were taken from 25 movies, and each cut into 8 second clips. These clips were then combined into a montage between three and four minutes. By presenting participants with a variety of clips, their reactions can be gauged through intentionally arranged progressions. The videos can be edited by their content, from least graphic to most graphic, or least bloody to most bloody, or from wounds superficial to fatal. In this manner, the audience’s understanding of violence and violent depth as determined by content can be derived from post-viewing questions. By asking whether they felt that the videos were increasing in level of “violence,” the elements which determine their response to the content, its intensity, and their perception of it could all be derived.

However, this proposed method presents notable limitations that mainly pertain to the accuracy of test results. The clips were not presented with sound, and the experiments were conducted within a classroom setting using a laptop. These two factors remove the participants from their regular environment when viewing TV and movies at home, a separation for normality that may affect the results of the experiment by influencing the audience’s perception of the situation. The data collection through a survey presents limited reach of collecting the full range of participant emotions and exposure habits. Ideally, a comprehensive approach to studying exposure to and perception of violence would rely on extensive qualitative data collection over a prolonged period of time, in order to track changes and trends. This study had only a limited time period to accomplish its goals, and so, the objective of the study had to focus more on immediate and conscious cognitive reactions to a presented stimulus, rather than a broad collection of long-term media habit development, and perspective shifts over time as tested through the use of continued exposure. It must be taken into account that a variety of external factors, notably emotional state and personal life events may affect the response of the participant to the survey due to their influence on temporary perspective. All study methods that rely on exposure to stimulus may be influenced external factors on the participant that affect their answers. To reduce the prevalence of these instances, the survey itself was made to include multiple questions of a similar nature that were able to gauge the most honest response of the participant by observing consistency between questions. A process completed through statistical data analysis following the completion of the study.

In total, 40 adolescents from the ages of 14 to 18 participated in this study. All participants were first given an in-depth explanation of the reasons behind their participation in the study, and the activity which they would be participating in. All participants gave written consent if over 18 years old or provided written parental consent if under 18. Prior to the commencement of the study, Institutional Review Board approval was given to this study, with emphasized focus placed in scrutinizing each clip of media violence included in the study’s stimuli montage.

DATA ANALYSIS

In order to properly interact with the data collected in this study, it is imperative that one look at both the preemptive questions provided in the method and compare them not only to the results from the post viewing questions, but also to other factors from the previewing questions themselves. Similarly, the post billing questions can also be cross analyzed against other results from post viewing. While the substantial part of the data analysis comes from observing the reaction to the stimulus, and what factors predetermine this reaction. It's also significant to realize that certain factors influence each other. For example, the amount of content which a participant watches in their daily life, will inevitably influence their reaction to the stimulus, because logically it predetermines their desensitization, and their conceptualization of the videos before them. The data pertaining to the amount of content watched, can also be used to look at the process through which participants view the content, such as whether they are passive and easygoing, oftentimes viewing things as background noise, or whether they're more active, engaged, and analytical about what they watch. This presupposes that desensitization is the product of exposure, but, as the root of the study aims to understand, cognizance plays a role in influencing all of these. For this reason, in order to best attempt to defining categorize the cognitive experience of viewing violence, the data from this study should be used in the multiple ways mentioned above.

To derive analysis from the collected data set, each response of the surveyal Likert scale was assigned a value between One and Five. With One representing the response “Strongly Disagree,” and Five at “Strongly Agree.” Means closest to 3 can be understood as a question which participants were highly neutral towards.

Figure 12 illustrates whether the participant would react stronger to the content based on their habits. This data is best understood when compared with the fact that 25 out of 40 participants (62.5%) stated that they are influenced by the content they watch and use the lens of that media as a reference for their experiences in daily life (similar to Baudrillard’s concept of the era of simulation). Similarly, 20 out of 40 participants (50%) answered that their participation in the study lead them to perceive the world as gradually becoming more violent. A concept likely correlated to the accurate perception that there is more violence being included in film and TV on a regular basis.

DISCUSSION

The presented data from this study suggests a correlation between the attention paid to the content watched by participants of this study over the quantity of films and movies watched by the participants on a regular basis.

Figures 1 and 2 demonstrate a negative relationship between the amount of content watched on a daily basis (less than or greater than three hours) and the participants’ reactions of anxiety and shock after watching the stimulus montage. On the other hand, the same independent variable of viewing quantity applied to the excitement, aggression, and alertness each demonstrate a positive relationship, as seen in Figures 3, 4 and 5. This relationship suggests that adolescents who view violent content in a regular basis are often excited by the content, and have the appetite to not only stomach violence without increases negative reaction, but also hold less negative associations with the nature of the content they are being exposed to, regardless of the amount of violence which is found in their day-to-day viewing.

In revisiting the hypotheses from the beginning of the experiment, we are able to see that the assumption that the majority of adolescents do in fact find violence more appealing – echoing back to the conclusion by Brocato in 2010. Similarly, people with stronger consumptive habits were in fact less shocked by what they viewed, but were more excited by it. Reanalyzing other educated guesses from this study, stronger consumptive habits did not actually reduce reaction level. Many participants did report that the videos included in the montage were more violent than what they would be exposed to on a regular basis. Similarly, another incorrect assumption came from the hypothesis that participants who watch more content would be more involved and analytical about what they were watching.

CONCLUSION

This study contributes to a larger conversation on the effects that media and violence have on adolescents. Whether aware of it or not, the body has a reaction to violence, and it is often left as the burden of the viewer to be cognitively active and engaged enough to process and pick apart the violence into a palatable piece of fiction. However, not everyone is constantly engaged in what they are viewing, and the media itself is often not as a clear as it may seem – being layered by simulacra and ideology (Strenziok 543).

From this study we gain a broader understanding of the fact that adolescents are attracted to viewing violence, and are not fully desensitized, but still face a variety of issues as to whether or not their brain is being molded by what they are viewing. The data from this study support the ideas that adolescents need to be careful about not only what they watch, but how they watch it. As the mediascape of the 21st century continues to evolve at an exponential rate (such as with the recent introduction of artificial intelligence as a generator of new content), the individual and the brain must also adapt to understanding it.

Whether or not the postmodern mediascape has been successful in creating a false hyperreality of meta-discursive cinema that occludes the understanding of truth, as proposed in the thesis by Baudrillard. There is still value in attaining understanding of the ontological experience which media creates in status quo – especially for adolescents. Knowing that the brain will subconsciously and internally process and internalize the ideas of the media depicted, it is important that we make strides toward full comprehension of the role which conscious processing and ontological phenomenology play in the creation of new perspectives (Sude).

This research has expanded the conceptual understanding of Jean Baudrillard’s simulacra in practice. While there is always more research that can be done to more accurately assess the intersection of media studies and philosophy, this project has successfully created a new conclusion as to the role of violence in media as a factor for the development of perception for individuals. With the most important deduction being the fact that the brain will process regardless to attention, and that while adolescents may be used to watching lots of media, they are still heavily affected by the influence of truth as a tool for comprehending violence.

APPENDIX A

Pre-Viewing Questions

1. I watch more than the equivalent of 2 movies a day.

2. I consider violence a reasonable action in response to aggression.

3. I consider violence an interesting plot point in film and TV.

4. The content that I watch influences my perspective of the world.

5. The world around me is becoming more violent.

6. There is more violence included in film nowadays.

7. When I watch violent content, I am often left with a feeling of shock.

8. When I watch violent content, I am often left with a feeling of anxiety.

9. My relationship to consuming content is passive as a viewer.

10. The majority of media that I watch on a regular basis was created after 2001.

11. I sometimes use the content I watch as a reference for real-life events.

12. I am not interested in media that contains too much violence.

13. There are still scenes of violence in movies and TV that manage to surprise me.

Post-Viewing Questions

1. These clips were more violent than what I am exposed to on a regular basis

2. Acts of violence depicted in this montage were unlike something I would see in real life.

3. Certain actions depicted in these clips made me feel anxious.

4. These clips were thrilling in a negative way (ie. a sense of shock, sense of discomfort).

5. After watching these clips, I feel a greater sense of excitement.

6. After watching these clips, I feel a greater sense of aggression.

7. Having seen these clips has made me feel more awake.

8. I am angered that acts of violence such as the ones in the clips were included in major media.

9. The actions of violence depicted in this clip make me interested in watching the rest of the media source (movie/show).

10. The clips seemed to get more violent as the montage progressed.

11. The inclusion of context for the events of a clip would make the scenes feel less shocking.

12. Violence depicted in the clips was more disturbing than I expected to see in this study.

13. Having seen these clips makes me feel that the public environment is becoming more violent.

APPENDIX B

Stimulus Media Involved:

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm (1968) Dir. William Greaves

Mishima: a life in four chapters (1985) Dir. Paul Schrader

Reservoir dogs (1992) Dir. Quentin Tarantino

Fallen angels (1995) Dir. Wong Kar-wai

Fargo (1996) Dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

The Matrix (1999) Dir. Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) Dir. David Lynch

Mulholland drive (2001) Dir. David Lynch

Curb your Enthusiasm (2000s) Cr. Larry David

The Machinist (2004) Dir. Brad Anderson

No country for old men (2007) Dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Synecdoche, New York (2008) Dir. Charlie Kaufman

Shutter Island (2010) Dir. Martin Scorsese

Drive (2011) Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn

We need to talk about Kevin (2011) Dir. Lynne Ramsay

Tangerine (2015) Dir. Sean Baker

Stranger Things (2016) Dir. Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer

Deadpool (2016) Dir. Tim Miller

Baby Driver (2017) Dir. Edgar Wright

Riverdale (2017) Cr. Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Get Out (2017) Dir. Jordan Peele

Under the Silver Lake (2018) Dir. David Robert Mitchell

Knives Out (2019) Dir. Rian Johnson

Babylon (2022) Dir. Damein Chazelle

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) Dir. Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert

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AP CAPSTONE RESEARCH FINAL THESIS: 'YOUNG ADULT MEDIA VIOLENCE REACTION AND COGNITIVE PERCEPTION'

30-IV-2024

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