The human race suffers from an odd paradox. The majority of the global community decries violence as despicable, abhorrent conduct and bases their social norms on that premise. Yet many line their living room or movie theatre seats like a Roman Coliseum, glued to the aggression on the screen.
The interest in violence is nothing new. People have dissected the effects of consuming violence since the 1880s, when several states prohibited printed materials that described bloodshed in words or pictures. Now that current visual and print outlets overflow with violent imagery, many social scientists suggest media violence contributes to aggressive behavior in society. The public’s attention to news of inhumane abuse in Iraq and movies of beheadings flooding websites both flexes the human gag reflex while drawing the eye. But it remains unknown why people are simultaneously repelled by and attracted to learning about others’ violent actions.
University of Wisconsin Communications Arts Professor Joanne Cantor said human fascination with violence could be traced back to evolution. Animals that paid attention to violent species’ behavior were more likely to survive and procreate. She said humans are drawn to violence in similar ways.
“It’s the same thing as when you drive by an accident and you turn to see what happened,” Cantor said. “Even if it sickens you, you keep on watching.”
Cantor added media understands this desire and brings violent content to the foreground.
Since watching violence is very physiologically exciting, Cantor said people may use media to escape their “hum-drum” existence. In times of terrorist concerns, citizens also turn to media violence to learn how to cope with the situation, according to Cantor. Unfortunately, she said, this approach doesn’t always work and may actually contribute to people’s anxiety.
Two brutal events have received nationwide attention recently. The country tuned in to the fallout from Maurice Mason’s and Bennie Frier’s self-confessed bizarre murder of Wisconsinites Jennifer Lynn Hitchcock and a Baraboo taxi driver two weeks ago, and Friday’s conviction of Scott Peterson for murdering his wife Laci, who was carrying their unborn child.
Cantor said unlike many similar murders that occur without much coverage, the Laci Peterson case contained all the necessary elements of entertainment television.
“It was a murder mystery,” Cantor said. “It involved sex and romance and violence, and an attractive man and woman, and another woman.”
Although compelling to staying informed on violent events, it is these entertainment values driving news production, UW anthropology professor Neil Whitehead said. He added news delivers to a humankind captivated by something monstrous coming out of something normal.
“People like to see Bill O’Reilly beat up on someone or Chris Matthews give his performance,” he said. “These buttons [that they press are] all those culturally appropriate buttons.”
Whitehead pointed to painful physical rituals in certain South American cultures, saying violence was less intense on the larger scale in some smaller societies.
“Looking at Amazonians, even though they’re capable of some spectacular forms of violence, I think America, with the wars we’ve waged and the bombs we’ve dropped, we’re capable of no less,” he said.
UW senior Laura Galvin said she enjoys watching movies about the Mob to learn the history of violence in different cultures and periods. She also stated suspense and action always grab the public eye.
“I think violence, whether we practice it, is always interesting to the public,” she said. “Look at the news every night. Would they report that if people didn’t want to hear about it?”
