he causal hypothesis, the type of film exerted no impact whatsoever on the girls; with regards to the boys, those who watched a Three Stooges film acted most aggressively when playing and least aggressively, after watching an aggressive cartoon. Boys who watched non-aggressive films were categorized in the middle of the spectrum with regards to the level of aggression. The findings of this study clearly did not support the causal hypothesis.
Similarly, two laboratory experiments conducted by Mueller, Donnerstein and Hallaham (1983), along with Mueller and Donnerstein (1983), disproved the validity of the causal relationship between media violence and aggression. In the first experiment, the subjects either watched a violent or a non-violent film. Then they were provided with the opportunities to act in a friendly or helpful fashion. Mueller et al. (1983) found that the subjects who watched the violent film were not more aggressive than their counterparts who watched the non-violent film. In fact, some subjects who watched the violent film acted in a more helpful manner than the subjects who watched the non-violent film.
In a more sophisticated version of the aforementioned experiment, Mueller and Donnerstein (1983) exposed subjects to one of the three types of films: aggressive, humorous, or neutral. Then they were provided with the opportunity to act aggressively. The findings indicated that the subjects who had watched the aggressive or humorous films acted more aggressively than the subjects shown the neutral film. The outcome of these studies thus did not support the causal argument about media violence and violent behavior.
What is equally important is that many laboratory experiments that yielded supportive findings of the relationship between media violence and violent behavior suffered from major flaws. Freedman (2002) identified various problematic aspects of these studies. First, many of the laborat...