Effects of sex in the media

In the past several decades, researchers have spent continuous efforts on exploring how [...] content in the media influence individuals' perceptions of [...], marriage, and the [...]. Among these [...] content in the media, [...] has been a big business, generating $13 billion just in the U.S. in 2006. Researchers have reached agreement on some effects of [...] content in the media, such as arousal and some attitudinal effects. However, there is still an argument on whether the Catharsis effects resulting from the [...] media content.

Types of [...] Content

Scholars analyzed the violent [...] content based on different types of [...] content, which [...] content portray [...], bondage, torture, sadomasochism, hitting, spanking, hair pulling, and genital mutilation, and nonviolent [...] material. Nonviolent [...] material is much harder to categorize. Some nonviolent [...] material is entirely mutually consenting and affectionate, depicting vagina or oral intercourse in a loving, or at least non-coercive, fashion. On the other hand, some nonviolent [...] material is sexually dehumanizing, depicting degradation, domination, subordination or humiliation. Nonviolent [...] material presents the woman with few human attributes besides body parts and [...] appetite.

Effects of [...] Content in the Media

Arousal

One crucial effect of consuming [...] media is [...] arousal, "the heightened physiological state that energizes [...] behavior. Arousal can be measured in two methods. One method is self-ratings of participants and the other is that physiological measures such as electronic sensors measuring penile tumescence, vaginal lubrication, or temperature (thermography).

Some researchers found that men are more aroused by [...] media than are women, especially in response to sexually violent or dehumanizing materials. Also, [...] violence may only appeal to [...] offenders and other violence-prone men and even to "normal" men if the victim is portrayed as being aroused by the assault. Slides or verbal descriptions of coercive [...] are more appealing to sexually coercive men physiologically than "normal" men. Since the Internet provides unlimited number of websites that feature any [...] desire that the user wants, it results in [...] arousal because the stimuli are new. Carnes think that the Internet can allow people to see any of their fantasy, which usually do not exits in most people's daily lives. These images can be reactivated during the [...] intercourse.

Attitudinal Effects

One of the major criticism from scholars is that the dehumanization of women in [...] explicit materials. Men rated their own partners as being less physically endowed after seeing beautiful female nudes engaged in [...] activity. It seems that the voluptuous model has become the norm or anchor to which real people are compared. Zillmann and Bryant also found that such effects are not limited to men. Compared with control groups, both men and women who watched weekly pornographic films later reported that they are less satisfied with their partners' affection, appearance, [...] curiosity, and [...] performances. They also [...] with less emotional involvement and showed greater acceptance of premarital and extramarital [...]. They placed less values on monogamy and marriage. Teenagers who have watched a whole day of talk shows discussing AbOUT [...] topics later overestimated the frequency of such behaviors.

Individual Differences

Different people have different reactions to [...] content in the media. Men are more likely to be aroused by the [...] content than women. Gettleman argued that men are main consumers of [...] videos, with an estimated 71 of [...] videos consumed by men by themselves. It does not mean that men are more interested in [...] videos than women. Women have been found to be more interested in written and directed by women and for women, while men appear to be more interested in seek out [...] media and be aroused by it. Malamuth and Check found that men, not women, were as aroused by a [...] scene as by a consenting [...] scene but only if the victim was portrayed as enjoying the [...] and coming to [...]. The men were not aroused if the victim was shown to be terrorized.

Personality can also be an indicator of individuals' different reactions to [...] content. Bushman, Bonacci, van Dijk, and Baumeister found that narcissistic men will be more likely to enjoy the [...] scene preceded by affection between the parties than low narcissists did. Borgaert's study considered intelligence is a mediator between personality and arousal attitudes. Men, who have lower intelligence and higher aggressive/antisocial inclinations, are more likely to prefer violent [...] stimuli than men higher in intelligence and lower in aggressive/antisocial tendencies.

Behavioral Effects

Bryant and Zillmann concluded that potential behavioral effects of violent [...] media content include: catharsis, disinhibition, imitation, and desensitization.

Catharsis

Catharsis holds that "vicariously participating in others' fictionalized hostility or aggression enables drama watchers, readers, or listeners to be purged of their anger and hostility and there by become less aggressive." This popular idea comes directly from psychodynamic models of personality. The Catharsis effect has been applied to support loosening restrictions on [...] and it has also been reported by [...] offenders as a strategy for reducing impulses for committing an offense. However, very few empirical studies support the catharsis effect.

Disinhibition

Disinhibition is that after being repetitive exposed to [...] materials may undermine learned social sanctions against using violence that usually inhibit aggressive behaviors. People may become more aggressive after watching, reading or listening to media violence because they may tend to legitimize using violence in real life. A dozen experimental investigations have explored the disinhibition effects and provided support for this hypothesis.

Imitation

Imitation is explained in terms of social learning theory, which argues that "humans have evolved an advanced capacity for observational learning that enables them to expand their knowledge and skills on the basis of information conveyed by modeling influences". Social learning explains how observers match the performances of models. Four things must happen before imitation: The first is attentional process, which people must have seen, read, listened to [...] materials. The second is retention process, which people can retain some memories of what they have seen, read and listened to. The third is production process, which the learner must have the capabilities to replicate the action. The fourth is motivational process, which people must have sufficient desire or will to perform what the violent behavior. Only when all of these four conditions were met, people imitate the performances of actors.

Desensitization

The desensitization effects have been touted by some researchers. The desensitization hypothesis argues that the repeated exposure to [...] violent materials can result in less emotional responsiveness to violence in fiction, news, and reality fare, which could in turn result in an increased acceptance of violent behaviors. However, this notion was touted a lot and limited research evidence available supports disinhibition effects.

Mitigating the Negative Effects

Harris and Barlett concluded that a few studies have developed extensive pre-exposure training and/or post-exposure debriefing procedures to lessen the desensitizing effects. Linz found that by offering pertinent educational information about [...] myths reduced the effect of desensitization, which means experimental participation can also help reduce the [...] myth acceptance. Wilson, Linz, Donnerstein, and Stipp conducted a field experiment, they found that men who are older than 50 had preexisting attitudes reinforced and actually blamed women for [...] after seeing the film. In other words, preexisting attitudes and personal experience should be considered when conducting research studies.

Allen, Emmers, Gebhardt, and Giery concluded that experimental studies show positive significant effect between [...] exposure and [...] myth acceptance, whereas correlational field studies how a very small effect or nonexistent effect. But the relationship consistently stronger when the [...] materials was violent than it was nonviolent.