Chunk #65 — II. G × E Interaction in Aggressive Behavior — A. Potential moderators of genetic influence found in adoption and twin studies — 2. Violent media exposure
There is an ongoing debate about whether exposure to violent video games increases aggressive behavior, and it is very possible that exposure to media violence could moderate the influences of genetic and environmental influences on aggressive behavior. One line of research argues that mass media exposures contribute to a child's socialization. A primary process in such socialization is observational learning (Bandura, 1973). Children and adolescents mimic what they see and acquire complicated scripts for behaviors, beliefs about the world, and moral precepts about how to behave in the long run from what they observe (Huesmann, 2010). In contrast, another line of research argues that there is little empirical evidence for a link between media exposure and violence. This line of research argues that media violence cannot have any important psychological effect on the risk for aggressive behavior (Ferguson and Kilburn, 2010).
