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The Epistemological Argument Against a Causal Relationship Between Media Violence and Sociopathic Behavior Among Psychologically Well ViewersTexas State University, San Marcos, grimes{at}txstate.edu
Texas State University, San Marcos Much of the media violence research that has occurred, principally in the United States, has been based on a fundamental epistemological error: A correlation between variables— that is, between the consumption of media violence and acted-out aggression—has been inferred by many researchers to be a causal relationship. This article suggests that scholars who infer causation from correlation miss an important point. They propose to rescue a deeply flawed literary corpus by applying statistical principles that do not account for the theoretical and methodological disarray of much of the media violence literature, a disarray that invalidates their probabilistic calculations. This article suggests that rather than argue a causal hypothesis, it is more productive to untangle the conceptual and methodological confusion that hobbles this study area. A by-product could be the dissolution of the causal argument: The putative causal relationship between society's consumption of media violence and social aggression may disappear.
Key Words: media violence • children and television • causal relationships • psychopathology • epistemology
American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 51, No. 8,
1137-1154 (2008) |
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