Media Exposure Linked to Risky Behavior in Study

Experts have collected new data to prove that media channels such as video games, TV and the Internet are responsible in part for driving a series of risky behaviors in individuals exposed to their influence.

One of the reasons for this may be that all these forms of media show their users what life looks like in the “fast lane,” encouraging people to forgo the inhibitions that they need to survive in the real world.

As such, those who expose themselves to these media for prolonged periods of time are at a higher risk of engaging in risky behaviors than their peers who don't. These conclusions were derived from an in-depth survey of more than 25 years of research.

Exposure to street racing, binge drinking and unprotected intercourse is responsible for making people more prone to engage in risk-taking behaviors and attitudes towards their peers themselves.

This is the main result that experts got from their meticulous research, which looked closely at the connections between risky behaviors and risk-glorifying media across a range of research methods, media formats and types of behavior. The correlations held to scrutiny.

In a paper detailing the findings – published in the latest issue of the medical journal Psychological Bulletin – the research team said the effects of media on people were both short- and long-term.

“It appears from our meta-analysis that risk-glorifying media has potentially grave consequences, such as innumerable incidences of fatalities, injuries and high economic costs in a broad variety of risk-taking domains, such as substance abuse, reckless driving, [and] gambling,” says Peter Fischer, PhD.

He holds an appointment as a psychology professor at the University of Regensburg, in Germany, and is also the lead author of the new research,
reports.

Watching films or listening to music were passive behaviors less tied to an increase in the risk people had of behaving risky. Video games – defined as an active behavior – were at the opposite end.

All in all, the investigation covered data from more than 80,000 participants, and covered a territory including the United States and Europe. The studies in the analysis were carried out between 1983 and 2009.

“These results support recent lines of research into the relationship between risk taking and the media,” Fischer goes on to say.

“There is indeed a reliable connection between exposure to risk-glorifying media content and risk-taking behaviors, cognitions and emotions,” the team leader concludes.