The Third-Person effect in perceptions of the influence of television violence

This study examines the third-person effect (the belief that others are more affected by media messages than oneself) for two different effects of televised violence, mean world perceptions and aggression, using attribution theory as an explanatory framework. In telephone interviews with a random sample of 253 community residents, third-person effects, as predicted, were observed for both aggression and mean world perceptions, but were larger for the more socially undesirable influence on aggression and for more distant others (in the U.S. rather than the local community). In addition, those who compared themselves favorably with others perceived a larger third-person effect for aggression. The study also explores the role of other factors in the third-person effect, including demographics and liking for and exposure to televised violence.

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