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Violent and prosocial music: Evidence for the impact of lyrics and musical tone on aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
Abstract
Although there is a large research base on the psychological impacts of violent and prosocial visual media, there is little research addressing the impacts of violent and prosocial music, and which facets of the music have the greatest impact. Four experiments tested the impact of lyrics and/or musical tone on aggressive and prosocial behavior, and on underlying psychological processes, using purpose‐built songs to avoid the effect of music‐related confounds. In study one, where mildly aggressive, overtly aggressive and violent lyrics were compared to neutral lyrics, any level of lyrical aggression caused an increase in behavioral aggression, which plateaued for all three aggression conditions. Violent lyrics were better recalled than other lyrics one week later. In studies two‐three no significant effects of lyrics, or of aggressive versus nonaggressive musical tone, were found on aggressive or prosocial behavior. In terms of internal states, violent lyrics increased hostility/hostile cognitions in all studies, and negatively impacted affective state in three studies. Prosocial lyrics decreased hostility/hostile cognitions in three studies, but always in tandem with another factor. Aggressive musical tone increased physiological arousal in two studies and increased negative affect in one. In study four those who listened to violent lyrics drove more aggressively on a simulated drive that included triggers for aggression. Overall, violent lyrics consistently elicited hostility/hostile cognitions and negative affect, but these did not always translate to aggressive behavior. Violent music seems more likely to elicit behavioral aggression when there are aggression triggers and a clear way to aggress. Implications are discussed.
... Results showed that participants who listened to violent songs were more likely to aggress compared to the control group. On the other hand, Warburton et al. (2024; Study 2) randomly assigned participants to listen to a violent, prosocial, or neutral song (all lyrics were created for the purpose of the study) before engaging in an aggression task against an ostensible partner (the tangram task), and results showed no main effect of music condition on aggression. Mixed results call into question the veridical nature of the overall effect of lyrical content on aggression and may suggest the presence of moderators. ...
... First, findings from past research suggest a null effect of tempo on aggression-Call (2021) randomly assigned participants to listen to fast or slow violent or nonviolent song lyrics before engaging in an aggression task, and results showed no main effect of tempo on aggression. Second, several experimental studies sample songs that differ in lyrical content but match (as closely as possible) song tempo to rule out alternative interpretations for their findings (e.g., Fischer & Greitemeyer, 2006;Pieschl & Fegers, 2015;Warburton et al., 2024). ...
... Finally, we examined other moderator variables in the relationship between violent song lyric exposure and aggression that allowed us to test for artifacts in the literature and rule out alternative hypotheses. The first was study design, which we coded into experimental studies-those that randomly assign participants to listen to either violent song lyrics or some control group (no music, neutral music, prosocial music) before assessing state aggression (e.g., Fischer & Greitemeyer, 2006;Hyatt et al., 2017;Lennings & Warburton, 2011;Mast & McAndrew, 2011;Warburton et al., 2024)-or nonexperimental studies-that correlate violent song lyrics exposure and trait aggression using either a cross-sectional (Brown, 2020;Coker et al., 2015) or a longitudinal design (Coyne & Padilla-Walker, 2015;Ybarra et al., 2022). The second was the year of publication, which, if significant, may suggest that the effect of violent song lyrics on aggression is changing over time. ...
Objective: Our objective is to meta-analyze the relationship between exposure to violent song lyrics and aggressive thoughts, aggressive feelings, aggressive behavior, and physiological arousal. To date, no published meta-analysis has examined these relationships. Method: Our literature search uncovered 35 independent studies. We coded several moderators (e.g., tempo, study design, etc.) to examine the ubiquity of violent music lyrics on aggression findings. Results: Our meta-analysis showed that violent music exposure was related to aggression. Moderation tests showed that the construct influenced the overall results—violent music lyrics were related to aggressive behavior, aggressive cognitions, and aggressive affect, while the effect on physiological arousal was unclear. Moreover, neither study design (experimental vs. nonexperimental), publication status (published or not), the tempo of the music, nor publication year moderated the overall effect. Conclusions: In sum, results showed that violent song lyric exposure was positively correlated with aggression, which substantially adds to the body of literature focused on violent media effects.
... Furthermore, violent lyrics in heavy metal and rap have been shown to increase aggression and hostile cognitions (Warburton et al., 2024). Genres like punk and gangster rap have been linked to societal divides and contributed to violence (Lozon & Bensimon, 2014). ...
This article explores whether the lyrics of songs influence their success in a national song contest. We constructed emotional arcs from over 6.763 song lyrics and examined their impact on contest performance. Our findings reveal that these emotional arcs echo established behavioral phenomena such as the ‘paradox of negative emotion’ and the ‘peak-end rule’. Typically, songs characterized by sorrowful plots and endings receive higher scores than those with more joyful emotional themes. Furthermore, such songs are more likely to be awarded points initially. Despite this, contestants often choose songs with positive endings for their performances. To isolate the effects of lyrics from other song characteristics, we utilized Spotify metrics, including danceability, energy, and tempo. This methodology allows us to differentiate the influence of musical and lyrical elements on listener decision-making. This study contributes to the growing literature on the behavioral aspects of music and its impact on decision-making.
... Aggressive cognitions and anger were the skills emphasized by the authors Pieschl & Fegers (2016) following the evaluation of violent lyrics in music. In contrast, music with prosocial lyrics brings consistent beneficial effects (Warburton et al., 2024), reducing aggression (Greitemeyer, 2011). ...
Multiple forms of violence have emerged in the media over recent decades, and their impact on the public has been the focus of extensive global research. This research often links media violence to an increase in aggression, particularly among young people and children. The purpose of this paper is to present a theoretical framework and highlight significant conclusions regarding the effects of media violence through various forms of content, including television (cartoons, horror movies, news), video games, music lyrics, and social media platforms. It explores how the public can be affected by less friendly, even violent content and what disadvantages arise, offering some suggestions in this regard. Studies have demonstrated that media violence can shape children's behaviors, emotions, and perceptions of the world, often in troubling ways. Some concerning outcomes associated with exposure to violent content include increased aggression, desensitization to violence, distorted worldviews, health problems, and addictions. Not only the effects at the level of behavior were taken into consideration, but also the role of parental involvement. The study contributes to a better understanding of the nature of the media phenomenon and the impact of its content. Other implications were discussed.
Concerns have been raised that prolonged exposed to heavy metal music with aggressive themes can increase the risk of aggression, anger, antisocial behaviour, substance use, suicidal ideation, anxiety and depression in community and psychiatric populations. Although research often relies on correlational evidence for which causal inferences are not possible, it is often claimed that music with aggressive themes can cause psychological and behavioural problems. This narrative review of theory and evidence suggests the issues are more complicated, and that fans typically derive a range of emotional and social benefits from listening to heavy metal music, including improved mood, identity formation, and peer affiliation. In contrast, non-fans of heavy metal music — who are often used as participants in experimental research on this topic — invariably report negative psychological experiences. Our review considers a comprehensive set of empirical findings that inform clinical strategies designed to identify fans for whom heavy metal music may confer psychological and behavioural risks, and those for whom this music may confer psychosocial benefits.
Extreme metal and rap music with violent themes are sometimes blamed for eliciting antisocial behaviours, but growing evidence suggests that music with violent themes can have positive emotional, cognitive, and social consequences for fans. We addressed this apparent paradox by comparing how fans of violent and non-violent music respond emotionally to music. We also characterised the psychosocial functions of music for fans of violent and non-violent music, and their passion for music. Fans of violent extreme metal (n=46), violent rap (n=49), and non-violent classical music (n=50) responded to questionnaires evaluating the cognitive (self-reflection, self-regulation) and social (social bonding) functions of their preferred music and the nature of their passion for it. They then listened to four one-minute excerpts of music and rated ten emotional descriptors for each excerpt. The top five emotions reported by the three groups of fans were positive, with empowerment and joy the emotions rated highest. However, compared with classical music fans, fans of violent music assigned significantly lower ratings to positive emotions and higher ratings to negative emotions. Fans of violent music also utilised their preferred music for positive psychosocial functions to a similar or sometimes greater extent than classical fans. Harmonious passion for music predicted positive emotional outcomes for all three groups of fans, whereas obsessive passion predicted negative emotional outcomes. Those high in harmonious passion also tended to use music for cognitive and social functions. We propose that fans of violent music use their preferred music to induce an equal balance of positive and negative emotions.
The current article used 3 studies to examine the impact of listening to body positive music on both explicit and implicit measures of body esteem in women. Study 1 found that women who viewed a mainstream popular body positive music video reported higher levels of body esteem than those who viewed a popular body objectifying music video. In Studies 2 and 3, we wrote and recorded our own songs to keep the musical features apart from the lyrics constant (e.g., rhythm, melody, and singer identity). Study 2 also found that women showed higher levels of implicit (but not explicit) body esteem when watching a music video portraying body positive lyrics as compared with objectifying lyrics. Study 3 added a neutral song and examined a number of moderators. There were few differences between those listening to the body positive and neutral lyrics, but those who listened to objectifying compared with neutral lyrics had lower body esteem. Moderation revealed that women who had preexisting low body esteem showed lower implicit body esteem after listening to any appearance-related music compared with those who listened to neutral lyrics. Thus, we recommend that women choose to listen to body positive lyrics over objectifying ones and to avoid appearance-related songs if they are prone to body esteem concerns.
Few empirical studies have targeted the links between media delinquency or risk-promoting popular culture (specifically aversive music genres) with negative affective states and aggressive driving. Yet for over a decade, drivers have reported that they commit traffic violations while listening to loud fast-beat aggressive music styles. The current investigation seeks to explore aggressive driving behavior while considering the genre of music background. Most specifically, we look at aversive music styles and songs with violent lyrics. The article outlines the testimonials by drivers (N = 6,058) from six recent commercially solicited surveys with drivers which demonstrate “proof of concept” for driver aggression subsequent to driving with music accompaniment. Further, the article details a study (N = 50) employing a driving simulator with 30 paired music exemplars of 4 music genres. Half consisted of songs with hostile aggressive lyrics and half with neutral lyrics—both performed in the same music styles by the same artists. The results demonstrate that energetic music boosted excitement resulting in decreased lateral control, increased excursions from the lane, and an increased tendency to stray onto the hard shoulder. Drivers who were exposed to hostile music with violent content on the other hand demonstrated increased cruising speeds and a higher percentage of time exceeding speed limits. These differential effects of music on drivers can be referred to as either music-generated driver distraction or music genre induced driver aggression.
Negative emotions are usually avoided in daily life, yet often appreciated in artistic endeavours. The present study investigated emotional experiences induced by Death Metal music with extremely violent themes, and examined whether enjoyment of this genre of music is associated with personality traits. Fans (N=48) and non-fans (N=97) listened to 60-second excerpts of Death Metal music and rated their emotional experiences. Compared with non-fans, fans experienced a wide range of positive emotions including power, joy, peace, and wonder. In contrast, non-fans reported uniformly negative experiences, including tension, anger and fear. Fans and non-fans were also distinguished by personality traits, with fans lower in conscientiousness and agreeableness, and in their motivations for listening to music. Results suggest that individuals with certain personality and music-listening motivations are drawn towards aggressive music with violent themes, and their enthusiasm for this genre promotes a range of positive emotional responses to this music.
This study explored 19 themes embedded in the lyrics of 1,040 U.S. top-40 songs from 1960 through 2010, using R strucchange software to identify trends and breaks in trends. Findings reveal both continuity and change. As in 1960, the predominant topic of pop music remains romantic and sexual relationships. However, whereas the proportion of lyrics referring to relationships in romantic terms remained stable, the proportion including reference to sex-related aspects of relationships increased sharply. References to lifestyle issues such as dancing, alcohol and drugs, and status/wealth increased substantially, particularly in the 2000s. Other themes were far less frequent: Social/political issues, religion/God, race/ethnicity, personal identity, family, friends showed a modest occurrence in top-40 music throughout the studied period and showed no dramatic changes. Violence and death occurred in a small number of songs, and both increased, particularly since the 1990s. References to hate/hostility, suicide, and occult matters were very rare. Results are examined in the context of cultural changes in the social position of adolescents, and more specifically in light of the increased popularity of rap/hip-hop music, which may explain the increases in references to sex, partying, dancing, drug use, and wealth.
While there has been extensive research on the potentially harmful effects of exposure to songs with aggressive or violent lyrics, little is known about the potential prosocial effects of more positive music; although it is well known that many musicians communicate norms and values of empathy and helping others through their lyrics, the effects of these messages are not well researched. Based on the General Learning Model, we expected that participants who listened to a song with prosocial lyrics would then experience less aggressive thoughts and feelings than recipients who listened to a song with neutral lyrics. An online experiment was conducted to compare the influence of prosocial versus neutral song lyrics on aggression level. A pilot study was first conducted to identify a prosocial and a neutral song, and music professionals and music students rated pairs of songs (by the same artist) that were comparable in terms of recognition, enjoyment, emotional arousal, and intelligibility; for example, Bruno Mars’s “The Lazy Song” and “Count On Me.” Our results indicate that while listening to prosocial lyrics decreases aggressive thoughts, there is no effect on aggressive feelings. One possible explanation is that the upbeat melodies and harmonies present in both the positive and neutral songs overshadowed any effect that lyrics had on feelings.
For over seven decades social psychological theories advanced understanding of aggressive behavior. The most recent major model – the General Aggression Model (GAM) – integrates prior theories, thereby encompassing the broadest range of aggressive phenomena. GAM is built on research about factors within a person that predispose them to aggression; factors from the environment that trigger aggression; and the underlying biological, neurocognitive, and psychological processes. This article summarizes historical and modern social psychological theories of aggression, key research methodologies and findings, and challenges of studying violence and aggression in society. It concludes by noting areas for future social psychological research of aggression.
Research on music has had an impressive impact. For example, the semantic content of lyrics seems to cause associated short-term effects regarding cognition and affect. However, we argue that these effects might have been confounded by other musical parameters related to time, pitch, texture, or voice of the selected songs. This study overcame this methodological problem by using different versions of an experimentally manipulated song. In a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, 120 university students listened to four versions of a song with violent or prosocial lyrics presented in slow or fast tempo. As predicted by theories of priming, violent lyrics increased aggressive cognitions (word completion test) and aggressive affect (self-reported state anger) in comparison with prosocial lyrics. However, the reverse effects of prosocial lyrics on prosocial cognitions and prosocial affect could not be confirmed. Finally, the tempo of the song did not consistently increase self-reported arousal, and we did not find more extreme effects under conditions of fast tempo as predicted by the arousal-extremity model.
Across six studies, we validated a new measure of helpful and hurtful behaviors, the Tangram Help/Hurt Task. Studies 1 to 3 provided cross-sectional correlational convergent and discriminant validity evidence for the Tangram Task using college-based and adult online samples. Study 4 revealed that previously validated empathy primes increase helpful behaviors on the Tangram Task. Studies 5 and 6 revealed that previously validated provocation manipulations increase hurtful behaviors on the Tangram Task. The effects of various experimental manipulations on the Tangram Task were similar to or larger than on other established indices of helpful and hurtful behaviors. In addition, motivation items in all studies indicate that tangram choices are indeed associated with the intent of helping and hurting. We discuss the advantages and limitations of the Tangram Help/Hurt Task relative to established measures of helpful and hurtful behaviors.
© 2015 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
Accession Number: 2006-12100-005. Partial author list: First Author & Affiliation: Roskos-Ewoldsen, David R.; University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, US. Release Date: 20070430. Publication Type: Book (0200). Format Covered: Print. Document Type: Chapter. ISBN: 0-8058-4998-X, Hardcover; 0-8058-4999-8, Paperback; 9780805849998, Paperback. Language: English. Major Descriptor: Mass Media; Meta Analysis; Priming; Social Influences. Minor Descriptor: Political Attitudes; Violence. Classification: Mass Media Communications (2750). Population: Human (10). Intended Audience: Psychology: Professional & Research (PS). Methodology: Meta Analysis. References Available: Y. Page Count: 28.
In the present study, the authors proposed a novel self-report 16-item scale for assessing individual differences in adult prosocialness and tested its measurement properties by employing an item response theory (IRT) analysis of data collected from a sample of 2,574 Italian adults. Prior work employing classical psychometric methods of analysis had already established the reliability and validity of the instrument. The present study furthered this scrutiny by examining whether the different prosocialness items were equally effective in discriminating people and equally informative; it also examined gender differences in the functioning of the items. The results of IRT analyses strongly supported the measurement effectiveness and sensitivity of the 16 prosocialness items, and findings are discussed for their implications in behavioral assessment research on prosocialness.
The General Affective Aggression Model (GAAM) posits that variables that increase aggression do so by increasing aggressive affect, aggressive cognition, or arousal. The effects of trait hostility, pain, and cognitive cues on state hostility (Experiment 1), on lexical decisions for aggressive and control words (Experiment 2), on escape motives (Experiment 3), and on aggressive behavior (Experiment 4) are presented. Consistent with GAAM, trait hostility increased both flight and fight motives, presumably due to affective reactions. Pain also increased hostile affect but increased aggression only when aggressive thoughts were made highly accessible (i.e., after viewing gun pictures). Theoretical implications are discussed.
Three experimental studies, one correlational study, and a meta-analysis tested key hypotheses concerning the short-term and long-term impact of exposure to violent video games. Experiment 1 found that violent video games in general increase the accessibility of aggressive thoughts. Experiments 2 and 3 found that playing violent video games increased aggression, even when arousal and affect were controlled. Experiments 2 and 3 also found that trait hostility and trait aggression were positively related to laboratory aggression. Furthermore, there was correlational evidence of a link between repeated exposure to violent video games and trait aggressiveness. Mediational analyses suggested that the trait effects and the violent video game effects on laboratory aggression were partially mediated by revenge motivation. The correlational study uncovered links between habitual exposure to violent video games, persistent aggressive cognitions, and self-reported aggressive behavior. A destructive testing regression approach found that the video game violence/aggression link remained significant even after stressing the link by partialling out sex, narcissism, emotional susceptibility, and Big Five personality factors. However, consistent with prior empirical and theoretical work emphasizing the importance of media violence in the creation of habitual aggressive patterns of thought, partialling out aggressive attitudes reduced the video game violent/aggression link to nonsignificance. The meta-analyses revealed significant effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, affect, and cognition; on cardiovascular arousal; and on prosocial behavior. A best-practices meta-analytic approach revealed that contrary to media industry claims, better conducted studies tend to yield stronger effects of violent video games on aggression and aggression-related variables than do more poorly conducted studies.
Thirty-five male college students added as much hot sauce as they wanted to a cup of water they believed another subject would have to drink after listening to heavy metal music with violent lyrics, heavy metal music without violent lyrics, or no music at all. Males who were exposed to the music with violent lyrics added more hot sauce to the water than those in the other groups. An equipment failure prevented a definitive analysis of the role played by testosterone in this effect, but the results clearly indicate that it was the lyrics and not other qualities of the music that was responsible for the aggressive behavior.
Research on human aggression has progressed to a point at which a unifying framework is needed. Major domain-limited theories of aggression include cognitive neoassociation, social learning, social interaction, script, and excitation transfer theories. Using the general aggression model (GAM), this review posits cognition, affect, and arousal to mediate the effects of situational and personological variables on aggression. The review also organizes recent theories of the development and persistence of aggressive personality. Personality is conceptualized as a set of stable knowledge structures that individuals use to interpret events in their social world and to guide their behavior. In addition to organizing what is already known about human aggression, this review, using the GAM framework, also serves the heuristic function of suggesting what research is needed to fill in theoretical gaps and can be used to create and test interventions for reducing aggression.
Music has often been shown to induce emotion in listeners and is also often heard in social contexts (e.g., concerts, parties, etc.), yet until now, the influences of social settings on the emotions experienced by listeners was not known. This exploratory study investigated whether listening to music in a group setting alters the emotion felt by listeners. The emotional reactions to 10 musical excerpts were measured both psychologically (rating on retrospective questionnaires and button presses indicated the experience of a chill, defined as the experience of a shiver down the spine or goose pimples) and physiologically (skin conductance response) using a new, innovative multi-channel measuring device. In a repeated measures design, 14 members of an amateur orchestra (7 male, 7 female; mean age 29) came in for two testing sessions: once alone, and once as a group. Chills were validated in the data analysis: each chill was counted only if the button press was accompanied by a corresponding skin conducta
A new questionnaire on aggression was constructed. Replicated factor analyses yielded 4 scales: Physical Aggression, Verbal Aggression, Anger, and Hostility. Correlational analysis revealed that anger is the bridge between both physical and verbal aggression and hostility. The scales showed internal consistency and stability over time. Men scored slightly higher on Verbal Aggression and Hostility and much higher on Physical Aggression. There was no sex difference for Anger. The various scales correlated differently with various personality traits. Scale scores correlated with peer nominations of the various kinds of aggression. These findings suggest the need to assess not only overall aggression but also its individual components.
Twelve persons drove for three hours in an automobile simulator while listening to music at sound level 63dB over stereo headphones during one session and from a dashboard speaker during another session. They were required to steer a mountain highway, maintain a certain indicated speed, shift gears, and respond to occasional hazards. Steering and speed control were dependent on visual cues. The need to shift and the hazards were indicated by sound and vibration effects. With the headphones, the driver's average reaction time for the most complex task presented--shifting gears--was about one-third second longer than with the speaker. The use of headphones did not delay the development of subjective fatigue.
Five experiments examined effects of songs with violent lyrics on aggressive thoughts and hostile feelings. Experiments 1, 3, 4 and 5 demonstrated that college students who heard a violent song felt more hostile than those who heard a similar but nonviolent song. Experiments 2-5 demonstrated a similar increase in aggressive thoughts. These effects replicated across songs and song types (e.g., rock, humorous, nonhumorous). Experiments 3-5 also demonstrated that trait hostility was positively related to state hostility but did not moderate the song lyric effects. Discussion centers on the potential role of lyric content on aggression in short-term settings, relation to catharsis and other media violence domains, development of aggressive personality, differences between long-term and short-term effects, and possible mitigating factors.
Stripping away the hype, this book describes how, when, and why media violence can influence children of different ages, giving parents and teachers the power to maximize the media's benefits and minimize its harm.
There are many opinions about media violence and children, but not all are supported by science. In this book, the top experts gather the latest results from 50 years of scientific study as the basis for a comprehensive, in-depth examination of the complex issues surrounding the effects of media violence of different types. Each chapter focuses on a particular issue of concern, including "hot" topics such as brain development, cyber-bullying, video games, and verbal aggression. Articles take into account factors such as economics, differences based on the ages of children, and differences between types of media violence.
This book provides the information parents and those who work with families need to make the best choices. It includes chapters specifically relevant to the types of bullying schools have the most trouble identifying and controlling. Most importantly, the writing is both intelligent and accessible so that parents, educators, pediatricians, and policymakers can understand and apply the findings presented.
Video games can have many effects on players, some of which could be intentional effects (e.g., games designed to train health compliance behaviors), and most of which are unintentional (e.g., violent games, stereotypes, gaming disorder). Some of these areas of research have been seen as controversial, but many of the controversies can be at least partially resolved by considering the learning mechanisms underlying the effects. We describe the General Learning Model in greater detail than has been provided elsewhere, including short-term and long-term mechanisms, processes of learning and forgetting, and moderators of learning. Video games use many of the best practices to train for both mastery and for transfer of learning. The implications for re-interpreting the literature on violent video games and gaming disorder, as well as for applied social psychology broadly defined, are discussed.
Road rage is a serious issue impacting road safety on Australian roads. This study investigated the psychological antecedents involved in aggressive driver behaviours. Specifically, the study investigated the relationships between metacognitive beliefs, anger rumination, trait driver anger, and driver aggression; and examined the extent of aggressive behaviours in a sample of Australian drivers (N = 246). An inspection of cross-tabulations indicated that nearly all drivers engaged in verbal driver aggression (94%), approximately half of the drivers engaged in vehicle aggression (53%), and approximately a quarter of the drivers engaged in physical aggression (27%). Driver aggression was more commonly reported from males, open licensed, and middle-aged drivers. Structural path analysis indicated that there was a hierarchical series of relationships present, in that metacognitive beliefs influenced cognitive constructs such as anger rumination and constructive expression. Additionally, such factors were shown to more prominently influence trait driver anger, and the degree to which it was expressed. Bivariate correlations also demonstrated that the relationships carried forward to more specific dimensions of anger rumination and driver aggression styles. The findings of this study may assist to identify the origins of psychological mechanisms involved with anger progression and expression and inform potential interventions for aggressive driving behaviours.
Several studies have examined the effect of music on prosocial behavior. However, they have not been able to explain whether lyrics with music or lyrics alone influence prosocial behavior. We conducted two studies to investigate this issue. We first validated the influence of prosocial lyrics (relative to neutral lyrics) on prosocial cognition and prosocial emotion (Study 1). Next, we examined the influence of different types of lyrics on prosocial behavior (willingness to participate in unpaid experiments) among college students under different lyric conditions (Study 2). The results are partly consistent with previous findings, and further reveal that lyrics may have an effect on prosocial cognition and emotion, and that different lyric conditions have a significant influence on prosocial behavior. Overall, we used the short‐term effect of the general learning model (GLM) to verify that prosocial lyrics in music can promote prosocial behavior among college students.
Laboratory measures play an important role in the study of aggression because they allow researchers to make causal inferences. However, these measures have also been criticized. In particular, the competitive reaction time task (CRTT) has been criticized for allowing aggression to be operationalized in multiple ways, leaving it susceptible to “p‐hacking.” This article describes the development of the CRTT and the ways in which its paradigm flexibility and analytic flexibility allows it to test a wide range of hypotheses and research questions. This flexibility gives the CRTT significant scientific utility, but as with any research paradigm, comes with the obligation that it has to be used with integrity. Although safeguards exist and there is little evidence of misuse, study preregistration can increase confidence in CRTT findings. The importance of findings such as those of Hyatt et al. (in press), which provide further evidence for the validity of the CRTT, are also noted.
A significant amount of existing research has dealt with the negative effects of music on people's behavior, but only a few studies have shown that music with prosocial lyrics can increase prosocial behavior. This study focuses on the positive effects of music with prosocial lyrics on people in an everyday setting. Based on the general learning model, a field experiment (N = 256, 66% female) was conducted to test whether people exposed to music with prosocial lyrics engaged in more prosocial behavior by buying more fair trade products compared to regular products than did those exposed to songs with neutral lyrics. Guests of a café were randomly assigned to either the prosocial or the neutral music condition and were monitored by two observers who were instructed to report the prosocial purchase (of fair trade coffee) and tipping behavior of the guests. The results indicated that there is a significant positive association between prosocial behavior and the prosocial lyrics of the songs played. The study shows that it is most likely that music with prosocial lyrics can influence one's prosocial purchase behavior in an everyday situation. The underlying mechanisms are still poorly researched, but these findings support the theoretical assumptions.
The current study examined longitudinal associations between listening to aggression, sex, and prosocial behavior in music on a number of behavioral outcomes across a one-year period during adolescence. Adolescents (N = 548, M age = 15.32, 52% female) completed a number of questionnaires on musical preferences, general media use, aggression, sexual outcomes, and prosocial behavior at two different time points separated by about one year. Using structural equation modeling to analyze the data, results revealed that listening to aggression in music was associated with increased aggression and decreased prosocial behavior over time, even when controlling for initial levels of these behaviors. Listening to sexual content in music was associated with earlier initiation of sexual intercourse and a trend for a higher number of sexual partners (reported at Time 2). Prosocial behavior in music was not associated with any behavioral outcome longitudinally. Collectively, these results suggest that listening to certain types of content in music can have a longitudinal effect on behavior during adolescence.
Copyright © 2015 The Foundation for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Five forms of driving-related angry cognitions were identified—Judgmental/Disbelieving Thinking (α = .94), Pejorative Labeling/Verbally Aggressive Thinking (α = .92), Revenge/Retaliatory Thinking (α = .93), Physically Aggressive Thinking (α = .93), and Coping Self-instruction (α = .83). Pejorative labeling/verbally aggressive, physically aggressive, and revengeful/retaliatory thinking correlated positively with each other and with driving anger, aggressive driving anger expression, aggression, and risky driving behavior. Coping self-instruction tended to correlate negatively with these variables. Judgmental/disbelieving thinking correlated positively with other forms of angry thinking, but was only somewhat correlated with other variables. Driving-related angry thoughts, except coping self-instruction, correlated positively with general hostile automatic thoughts. Differences in strengths of correlations with specific variables, and contributions to regression analyses supported the discriminant and incremental validity of driving-related angry thoughts. Implications for cognitive processes in anger and interventions were discussed.
It is well established that exposure to violent visual media is associated with increases in aggressive thoughts, feelings and behaviours. However, research regarding the effects of exposure to violent music is more scarce and has returned inconsistent findings. In their review of the literature, Roberts, Christenson and Gentile (2003) suggested that (1) the angry tone of violent music has a much stronger effect on aggressive behaviour than does exposure to violent lyrics, and (2) that the effects of violent music exposure on aggression are not widespread. In this study both assertions were tested. Participants (N=309) were measured for levels of trait aggression, selfreported actual aggression, and exposure to violent visual and auditory media. Exposure to violent visual media and exposure to violent music were both significantly correlated with trait and actual aggression, and the size of the effect was similar for both modes. When the effects were examined in detail, it was found that whereas exposure to violent visual media had a stronger effect on levels of physical aggression, exposure to violent music had a stronger effect on levels of indirect and displaced aggression. In addition, the effect of exposure to violent lyrics was found to be similar in strength to the effect of exposure to music with a violent 'tone'. The implications of these findings for current theories of media violence effects are discussed.
Two studies explored the role of pleasant music in buffering the adverse effects of provocation. In the first study, 111 participants listened to aversive, pleasant, or no music before receiving a provocation and completing a measure of aggressive behavior. Participants exposed to pleasant music reported more positive mood. Those in the aversive music condition reported more negative mood than did those in the no-music control condition. The more positive the music-induced mood, the less anger was experienced and aggressive behavior was shown after provocation. In Study 2 (N = 142), listening to pleasant music reduced anger following provocation, compared to aversive music and a no-music control condition. Pleasant music also increased response latencies in recognizing aggressive words after provocation.
Although there is evidence that the media priming effect fades with time, we lack empirical evidence from experimental designs. We investigated the media priming effect of reading crime tabloid articles that overrepresented foreigners as criminals on a subsequent real-world reality judgment (i.e., estimated frequency of criminal foreigners). We utilized a factorial experimental design (N = 465) with the between-subjects factors treatment and temporal delay of the postmeasurement. We found that the media priming effect followed an exponential decay function and that vigilance (i.e., the tendency to intensify the intake and processing of threat-relevant information) moderated the decay.
This article is among the first to focus on commercially available, sexually violent rap music, so-called “gangsta” rap (GR) and its influence on attitudes toward women. Collegiate males with little experience with GR were exposed to GR music, lyrics, both, or neither. Thus the effect of GR music and lyrics were isolated from each other and from acculturation to GR. Collapsing across all attitude measures, neither lyrics alone nor lyrics with music resulted in significantly more negative attitudes toward women than music-only or no-treatment control conditions. Participants in the lyrics conditions had significantly greater adversarial sexual beliefs than no-lyrics participants, however.
The effects of sexually violent music on undergraduate males' (N = 75) attitudes toward women, acceptance of violence against women, and self-reported sexual arousal were evaluated. The experimental manipulation involved exposure to sexually violent heavy-metal rock music, Christian heavy-metal rock music, or easy-listening classical music. One month before the experimental manipulation, participants were administered two covariate measures (religious orientation and sex-role orientation); the Attitudes toward Women Scale; the Sex-Role Stereotyping, Adversarial Sexual Beliefs, Acceptance of Interpersonal Violence, and Rape Myth Acceptance subscales from the Sexual Attitudes Survey; and a sexual arousal index. The results indicated that males with an extrinsic religious orientation were more accepting of sexist and rape-supportive beliefs. Exposure to heavy-metal rock music, irrespective of lyrical content, increased males sex-role stereotyping and negative attitudes toward women. An unexpected finding was greater self-reported sexual arousal in response to classical music. Results are discussed with respect to participant and stimulus characteristics and experimenters' gender.
The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of cognitive distortions concerning women on sexually aggressive behavior in the laboratory. Twenty-seven men listened to misogynous rap music and 27 men listened to neutral rap music. Participants then viewed neutral, sexual-violent, and assaultive film vignettes and chose one of the vignettes to show to a female confederate. Among the participants in the misogynous music condition, 30% showed the assaultive vignette and 70% showed the neutral vignette. In the neutral condition, 7% showed the sexual-violent or assaultive vignette and 93% showed the neutral vignette. Participants who showed the sexual-violent or assaultive stimuli reported that the confederate was more upset and uncomfortable in viewing these stimuli than did participants who showed the neutral vignette. These findings suggest that misogynous music facilitates sexually aggressive behavior and support the relationship between cognitive distortions and sexual aggression.
Previous research has shown that exposure to violent media increased aggression-related affect and thoughts, physiological arousal, and aggressive behavior as well as decreased prosocial tendencies. The present research examined the hypothesis that exposure to prosocial media promotes prosocial outcomes. Three studies revealed that listening to songs with prosocial (relative to neutral) lyrics increased the accessibility of prosocial thoughts, led to more interpersonal empathy, and fostered helping behavior. These results provide first evidence for the predictive validity of the General Learning Model [Buckley, K. E., & Anderson, C. A. (2006). A theoretical model of the effects and consequences of playing video games. In P. Vorderer, & J. Bryant, (Eds.), Playing video games: Motives responses and consequences (pp. 363–378). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates] for the effects of media with prosocial content on prosocial thought, feeling, and behavior.
This study examined whether or not watching a violent music video would provoke individuals to answer ques- tions with violent responses. Eleven participants watched a violent music video, 11 participants watched a non- violent music video, and 11 participants were in the control group and did not watch any videos. It was found that watching the violent music video containing violent lyrics, aggressive behavior, and degrading behaviors toward women did make an individual feel and react more violently with regards to responses to questions about fictitious scenarios. The conclusion was that watching violent music videos does negatively affect behavior.
The major aim of this chapter is to show how the development and occurrence of human aggressive behavior are explained by the social-cognitive information processing theory, and to review the empirical evidence supporting the theory. Artificially intelligent programs like “Deep Blue” do not succeed in solving complex problems simply because they can compute very rapidly. They succeed because they also incorporate models of the way in which human experts process information to solve problems. Different theories of social behavior may use different levels of explanation within this hierarchy, but generally, most theories adopt a level analogous to programming in a high-level computer language. Information processing models of social cognition have drawn on empirical knowledge about human cognition and human social behavior to define a set of basic processes and data structures that seem to characterize human cognitions about social behavior. The chapter discusses three important facts about anger and aggressive behavior in humans before proceeding with an elaboration of the role of social cognition. It further discusses that two general cognitive/information processing models have emerged to explain how humans acquire and maintain aggressive habits.
Examined the extent of violence and sexual content in 166 concept videos appearing on "Night Tracks," "Friday Night Videos," and Music Television. Visual dimensions of the videos were coded by 3 graduate students over a 7-wk period. Findings show that most video characters were White males aged 18–34 yrs. Episodes of violence occurred in 56.6% of the videos. Visual presentation of sexual intimacy appeared in more than 75%, and 81% of the videos containing violence also included sexual imagery. Patterns of aggressor/victim portrayals in music videos and on conventional TV are compared. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Five decades of research have shown clear links between exposure to violent visual media and subsequent aggression, however there has been little research that directly compares the effects of exposure to violent visual versus auditory media, or which has experimentally tested the effect of violent song lyrics with musical ‘tone’ held constant. In the current study 194 participants heard music either with or without lyrics, and with or without a violent music video, and were then given the chance to aggress using the hot sauce paradigm. Musical tone was held constant across groups, and a fifth (control) group had no media exposure at all. Experimental groups, on average, were significantly more aggressive than controls. The strongest effect was elicited by exposure to violent lyrics, regardless of whether violent imagery accompanied the music, and regardless of various person-based characteristics. Implications for theories of media violence and models of aggression are discussed.Research Highlights► A violent music-aggression link was found. ► Violent lyrics had a robust effect on aggression holding musical ‘tone’ constant. ► The results were similar across three violent music video clips from three music genres. ► The effect was undiminished holding trait aggression and personality variables constant.
Eighty university students, half men and half women, were distributed evenly among 4 conditions in a one-way design. Three of the groups heard a seven-minute-long musical selection, either soothing, stimulating, or aversive in nature, while the remaining subjects were not exposed to any music and sat still. Ratings indicated that the soothing and stimulating music created some- what different positive moods while the aversive music tended to arouse negative feelings. Those who heard the soothing music were most apt to be helpful immediately afterwards, significantly more so than the aversive music or no music subjects, perhaps because of the ideas evoked by this selection.
The Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI) was created to measure drivers’ self-reported likelihood to drive dangerously. Each DDDI scale (DDDI Total, Aggressive Driving, Negative Emotional Driving, and Risky Driving scales) had strong internal reliability and there was also evidence for the construct validity of the scales. The DDDI was used to examine the relation between dangerous and aggressive driving and dispositional aggression and anger among 119 college students. Males reported significantly more aggressive, risky, and angry driving than did females. Males and females reported similar levels of dangerous driving and negative emotions while driving. Dangerous driving was positively related to traffic citations and causing accidents. The DDDI will be useful as a research instrument to examine dangerous driving.
The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of exposure to nonviolent rap music on African American adolescents' perceptions of teen dating violence. African American male and female subjects were exposed to nonviolent rap videos (which contained images of women in sexually subordinate roles) or they saw no videos. They read a vignette that involved teen dating violence perpetrated by a male. The results indicated that there was a significant interaction between gender and video exposure. More specifically, acceptance of the use of violence did not vary as a function of exposure for male subjects. Conversely, female subjects who were exposed to the videos showed greater acceptance of the violence than females who were not exposed. Possible basis and implications for these findings are discussed.
We hypothesized that increasing or decreasing levels of control in an ostracized individual could moderate aggressive responding to ostracism. Participants were either ostracized or included in a spontaneous game of toss, and then exposed to a series of blasts of aversive noise, the onsets over which they had either control or no control. Aggression was defined as the amount of hot sauce participants allocated to a stranger, knowing the stranger did not like hot foods, but would have to consume the entire sample. Ostracized participants without control allocated more than four times as much sauce as any other group; ostracized participants who experienced restored control were no more aggressive than either of the groups who were included. Aggressive responding to ostracism may depend on the degree to which control needs are threatened in the target, and is discussed in terms of Williams’s (2001) needs threat model of ostracism.
The psychometric properties of the empathy quotient (EQ) measured by Baron-Cohen (2003) are examined. In particular, confirmatory factor analyses comparing a unifactorial structure and a three correlated factor structure suggest that the three factor structure proposed by Lawrence et al. (2004) is a better fit. Exploratory analysis using modification indices suggests that it might be possible to measure the three factors of empathy; cognitive empathy, emotional reactivity and social skills with three five item scales. The problems of self-report measures are discussed as are the problems posed by the pattern of sex differences on these three factors. Finally some links are suggested between the work on EQ and previous work on emotional intelligence.
Previous research has predominantly focused on negative effects of music exposure by demonstrating that listening to antisocial music increases aggression and aggression-related variables. The present research tests the idea that listening to prosocial (relative to neutral) music decreases aggressive outcomes. In fact, five studies revealed that prosocial music exposure decreased aggressive cognition, affect, and behavior. Mediational analyses showed that the effect of music condition on aggressive behavior was accounted for by differences in aggressive affect. Implications of these results for the predictive validity of the general learning model (Buckley & Anderson, 2006) for the effects of media exposure on social tendencies are discussed.
144 undergraduate men viewed rock videos which contained content that was erotic-violent, erotic-nonviolent, nonerotic-violent, or nonerotic-nonviolent. Exposure to nonerotic-violent rock videos resulted in significantly higher Adversarial Sexual Beliefs scores and ratings of negative affect. These and other findings are discussed in terms of Bandura's concept of emotional incompatibility and the frustration-aggression model.
This research tested hypotheses from state-trait anger theory applied to anger while driving. High and low anger drivers drove equally often and as many miles, but high anger drivers reported more frequent and intense anger and more aggression and risky behavior in daily driving, greater anger in frequently occurring situations, more frequent close calls and moving violations, and greater use of hostile/aggressive and less adaptive/constructive ways of expressing anger. In low impedance simulations, groups did not differ on state anger or aggression; however, high anger drivers reported greater state anger and verbal and physical aggression in high impedance simulations. High anger drivers drove at higher speeds in low impedance simulations and had shorter times and distances to collision and were twice as likely to crash in high impedance simulations. Additionally, high anger drivers were more generally angry. Hypotheses were generally supported, and few gender differences were noted for anger and aggression.